Naruto: A Different Path
by Sky Zephyrus
Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 1

It was a disastrous time to the village of Konoha. Without any warning, the great Bijuu Kyuubi no Youkou attacked the village and killing many shinobi of the village. Everybody was mourning that day, including Namikaze Kushina—formerly Uzumaki Kushina. Her husband, Namikaze Minato—the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha—was died in order to stop the beast from destroying the village by sealing it to their son, Namikaze Naruto. When she heard the news of his husband's death, her world shattered to bits. When she heard that her son had become the living prison of Kyuubi, she became very protective of him. Only a few people could see her without pissing themselves or fainted with the killer intent she radiated, namely the new reinstated Sandaime Hokage—Sarutobi Hiruzen, her husband's teacher and her son's godfather—Jiraiya, and A fellow Sannin of Jiraiya who also Naruto's godmother—Tsunade. Currently, they were on Kushina's room in the hospital. Kushina her self was holding her sleeping baby on her arm, not wanting to let him go no matter what happened. Her eyes was still red and puffy because she had cried so much.

"Kushina, Minato had a last will before he died. Would you like to hear it?" asked Hiruzen.

Kushina herself didn't answer, she only looked at her son and cradled him. The age leader sighed. He himself didn't want to risk to get to the bad side of a protective mother like Kushina, but this was her husband last will. What harm could happen?

"He..." the aged leader paused as he took a deep breath. "...wanted to tell the public about Naruto's status as the host of Kyuubi so that he would be viewed as a hero that saved the village."

Silence enveloped the room for a good whole minute before the temperature dropped several degrees. Kushina's body was trembling hard and her hold on baby Naruto was tightened.

"No..." muttered Kushina. "Don't tell them....Don't tell them my son holds the Kyuubi!" she yelled as she released her KI. Hiruzen gulped as Kushina's green eyes glared at him hard.

"Kushina listen, this isn't my will but Minato's. I'm here just to tell you that," reasoned Hiruzen. "Me myself also didn't like that idea. While I loved the people of Konoha, I highly doubt that they would see him like Minato wished. We all know how Jinchuuriki treated, without regarding on how they had Bijuu inside them and I'll be damned if Naruto treated like that."

The killer intent receded as Kushina calmed down, but her hold on Naruto was never loosen up.

"I'm sorry...It's just..." Kushina closed her eyes and tears running on her cheek once again. "...I'm afraid what will happen to him...what will happen to Naruto if his status as Jinchuuriki revealed. I already lost Minato and if anything happened to Naruto....I...."

The red haired woman left her line unfinished as she cried for the second time that night. Tsunade walked up to her and tried to comfort her as best as she could.

"What will you do now, sensei?" asked Jiraiya.

Hiruzen took a long drag from his pipe and sighed. "I'm going to tell the council and the public that Minato used a forbidden jutsu to defeat the Kyuubi, not sealed into Naruto. Hopefully that is enough to answer their question."

The white haired Sannin nodded as he shifted his attention to Kushina. She was still crying even though that Tsunade had tried to comfort her, not knowing baby Naruto had awakened. As if he felt her mother's turmoil, he reached for Kushina and giggled. The mother noticed this and quickly smiled before snuggling him.

"It looks like Naruto can cheer you up, Kushina," said Tsunade.

"Yeah..." replied Kushina as she wiped her tears. "He's just like his father..."

* * *

6 years later...

Naruto was on his way to Konoha's park as he didn't have any training scheduled. Since one year ago, Naruto had trained by himself to be a ninja just like his late father, mother, and adopted sister. Under the guidance of his mother and sister, he was taught several things like how to throw kunai and shuriken, practicing his family taijutsu and kenjutsu style—though kata only, and tapping on his chakra—the last training had caused several ANBU in patrol to come just because Naruto had emitted a high Jounin level chakra. His training however, had made him didn't have any friends around his age. That's why his mother had told him to take a break from his training for a week or so and made some friends. As he walk, people of Konoha would greet him and smiled at him. It is a well known fact that he was the son of the legendary Yondaime Hokage and his looks didn't help to hid his identity. He had spiky blond hair and sapphire blue eyes just like his father; save for three whisker like markings on his cheek. While it felt good to be respected like this, Naruto wasn't the type of person who bothered with things like titles, names, or someone who related him—which was also the wisdom implanted by his mother. While he hold the respect and love to his father, Naruto wasn't the same he is. He sighed as he kept on walking and eventually reached the park. The blond eyed the park and spotted a mob of kids gathered together.

"Ha! Look at her! She's a weird girl!" said one of them. It looks like they were bullies

"Yeah, you tell her! She had pink hair! What kind of hair color is that?" said another.

"Even her forehead is so huge! It's even larger than the Hokage mountain!" added another.

The bullies then started to call the girl they picked on with names such as "Ugly", "Weirdo", "Freak", and such until the girl started to cry.

"Now she cried! Boo hoo! Such a cry baby!"

"Yeah! Cry baby! Cry baby!"

Naruto growled as he watched the bullies picking on the girl. He decided to teach some the lesson to those bullies. He picked up a stone on the ground and threw it at the ring leader. The stone hit the intended target, causing him to turn around and searching for the responsible person as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey! Who did that? Who threw that stone at me?!"

"I did," answered Naruto, causing all of them turned to him, including the crying girl.

"What do you want, twerp?!" asked the bully leader with a glare.

"What else? I'm stopping you from picking that girl," said Naruto, glaring back at him.

Meanwhile, the bullied girl looked at Naruto with tears still on her eyes. Did that blond kid over there stood up for her? There was no one ever did that to her.

"She's just a freak! Why would you protect her?!" shouted one of the bully's lackeys.

"She's just another girl to me," replied Naruto nonchalantly. "I don't see anything why I should call her a weird girl. In fact you are the weird ones. Why would you gang up on a girl?"

The girl gasped when he said that. He didn't think she as a weird girl! She could felt some kind of warmth on her chest as his words echoed inside her head.

"Why you-! Come on guys, let's give this kid some lesson he wouldn't forget!" ordered the bully to his friends as he cracked his knuckles.

They all walked to Naruto, encircling him so that he wouldn't escape. While the girl watched worriedly as she hoping that her savior wouldn't get hurt so much just because he protected her. She then noticed the look on his face. There was no expression of fear or worry, it was...eagerness and anticipation?

The bully leader leashed a punch to Naruto, only to have the blond side stepped from his attack. The bully leader tried to hit the blond again and Naruto avoided the fist, before countered with an elbow to his back sending him face first to the dirt. The bully stood up and ordered his lackeys to attack the blond kid. This time, Naruto took the initiative to attack by sending an uppercut right to the goon number 1 and delivered a roundhouse kick to goon number 2. Both of them groaned in pain as the bully leader stood on his place, shocked with the fact that his friends down so quickly. He then leashed another punch in the act of desperation, but Naruto got him first in the center of his face before giving another roundhouse kick. The bully leader was sent to la-la land as he once again fell to the ground. Two other bullies were trembling on his place as they saw their leader was out cold.

Naruto turned to them with his eyes glaring at them hard. "Take him away and make sure that I don't see him."

They didn't complain much as they picked up the leader and left the park as fast as possible. The girl watched in awe and admiration as the her blond haired savior walked to her. First the boy had not called her weird and then beat those meanies without much sweating. Those facts enough to made her chest felt warm once again and so did her face.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Naruto as he kneeled on her level, making his gaze met hers.

Now the young Namikaze could see the girl he saved up close. She had short pink hair and green eyes The girl was wearing blue shirt with white pants . Upon looking at her, there was only one thing in his mind.

_'She is...pretty.'_

The pink haired girl is more or less on the same boat with Naruto. She now could see the one who had saved her up close. He had messy spiky blond hair and blue eyes. He wore white shirt with red spiral flame on the stomach and black shirt. He also had those three whisker like markings on his cheeks that made her thought only one thing on her mind.

_'He is...cute.'_

"Um...I-I'm alright," she answered meekly.

"Good to hear then," replied Naruto with a sigh of relief.

The two kids then did nothing but stared at each other for a while. They then quickly averted their gaze as their faces was reddening. A bit coughing from Naruto finally dissolved the awkward tension on the air around the two kids.

"S-So...do you mean it?" asked the girl, making Naruto blinked twice in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Y-You know, the part that you told them that I'm not a weird girl," she said with a hint of hope.

"Oh, that...that's true," admitted the blond with a slight blush on his face. "I mean...you're a one-of-the-kind type of girl."

"R-Really?" asked the girl again, now also sporting blushing cheek.

"Yeah, it's not like everyday you see with a girl with pink hair. Besides, your forehead...is so charming and makes me want to kiss it," answered Naruto, blushing deeper as he said the last part.

The girl found herself speechless. She wanted to say something, but no words were able to came out from her lips. The earlier warmth returned to her chest and a thought was formed on her mind.

_'Is this...what they call first crush?'_

**"Shannaro! Damn straight, girl!!"**

"My name's Namikaze Naruto. What's your name?"

"Haruno...Sakura."

"Okay then Sakura-chan, want to play together with me?" Naruto offered his hand and gave his trademark grin.

Sakura happily accepted the offer by taking his hand and smiled at him.

"Alright, Naruto-kun."

The two kids then played together happily until the day was over. When they both arrived at their home, they were happy and content for finding their first friend. They can't wait to see each other again tomorrow and in the the future.

* * *

2 years later...

"Hurry up, Naruto! You will be late for your first day at the academy!"

"I know, I know! Don't make me rush!"

Today was the day when Naruto is going to enter the Shinobi Academy. Although he already had several skills needed to be a Genin, but his mother insisted to enroll him to the academy. He didn't argue with that though. After all, his first and best friend Sakura was going enroll to the academy too. Within this two years, the two of them had became very close to each other. Naruto would protect Sakura from the bullies who always picked at her, either they were boys or girls. If it was a boy, he would beat them up and if it was a girl, he would gave them a silent glare as he was saying 'don't mess with my friend here or else'. The pink haired girl in the other hand was very surprised when she learned that her friend was the son of Yondaime. She didn't mind about that though. Yondaime's son or not, Naruto was her very first and best friend—here she was nearly fainted when Naruto hugged her. Kushina and Sakura's mother, Yukari, said that they were an item, much to the blond and the rosette's flustered reaction—after some explanation and endless teasing by Naruto's adopted elder sister, Setsuna.

After some skirmish in his house, Naruto finally ready to go along with his mother and sister. He now was wearing something different for the academy. He was wearing cream short sleeved shirt with orange highlights on around the neck, at the end of the sleeves, and the spiral flame on the left chest. He also wore orange pants with standard issue sandals on his feet. He also wearing bands on his wrists and ankles which were his weights.

"You ready?" asked Kushina.

"Of course I am," answered Naruto. "Let's go! I can't wait to go to the academy!"

"Translation: You can't wait to see Sakura," said Setsuna with a knowing smirk.

"W-What are you talking about, Setsu-nee?! J-Just get going already!" Naruto sputtered as he stomped his way to the academy.

Kushina and Setsuna just looked at the blond with a bemused look before followed him.

In the front gate of the academy, the newly enrolled students and their parents or guardian were gathered there, waiting for the escort that will take the new students to their class. Among them was Uchiha Mikoto along with her twin children, Sasuke and Satsuki; Inuzuka Tsume and her ninken Kuromaru with her son, Kiba and his partner Akamaru; Nara Yoshino who was scolding her son Nara Shikamaru for being lazy; Yamanaka Inoichi with her little princess, Ino; Akimichi Chouza and his son Chouji; Aburame Shibi with his equally stoic son, Aburame Shino; Hyuuga Hinata clinging closely to her guardian, Yuuhi Kurenai; and lastly Haruno Yukari with her only daughter, Sakura.

Sakura was looking among the crowd, hoping that she would find her best friend. She didn't see Naruto among them and she was worried with him.

_'Naruto-kun...where are you?'_

**"I'm going to so kick his ass if he late! Shannaro!!"**

As if Kami-sama had listened to her question, she saw Naruto on the horizon, running as fast as he could. Behind him, Kushina and Setsuna walked leisurely.

"Morning, Sakura-chan," greeted Naruto. He then also greeted Yukari, who returned the gesture.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun," replied Sakura. "Why are you late?" she asked.

"Sorry, I'm forget to set the alarm clock," admitted Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm excited you know! Today is the day for my first step to be a Hokage!"

Sakura giggled at her best friend's enthusiasm. She knew of his dream to be a Hokage and she admired him for it. His determination and spirit to never give up were the things she liked about him. On these two years, she also had trained together with him though she had lighter regiment. It was during the training that Kushina found out that Sakura's chakra control was near perfect and decided taught her a tiny bit of being a medic ninja.

"See, mother? I told you that what make Naruto very excited about the academy is Sakura," Setsuna commented as she entered the scene, not missing any chance to tease her brother.

"S-Setsu-nee! It wasn't like that!" retorted Naruto with a blushing face. Of course, his pink haired friend had the tendency to blush too.

"Alright, alright, enough with the teasing," said Kushina, playing as the peacemaker between her children. She then turned her attention to Naruto "Make me and your father proud, okay?"

"You bet!" replied Naruto with a thumb up and a grin.

It was then the Chuunin escort came and guided the newly enrolled students. After some encouragement and parting words, the students followed the Chuunin escort. As soon as they arrived on the class, the kids then sat at the available seats. Naruto and Sakura sat next to each other in the middle row. Some moments later, another Chuunin came in. He had brown hair that tied in spiky ponytail—similar to Setsuna, Naruto noted with a scar running horizontally on his nose.

"Alright kids, good morning," he said, responded by a chorus of 'good morning' by the students. "My name is Umino Iruka and I will be your teacher for your academic years. I hope you all study hard so that you will be a good ninja in the future. Understood?" his question was answered by a chorus of 'yes'. "Good. When I call for your name, you will stand up and introduce yourself by saying your name, your likes, dislikes, and your dream for the future.."

Iruka then started to call several names of the student and they followed his request. It was then Iruka called for Sakura's name. She was nervous, but after Naruto gave her an assuring look her confidence returned. She stood up and introduced herself.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. My likes are my mother, flowers, and my best friend Naruto-kun," she paused here as she glanced at Naruto and blushed. "I don't like other kids who bullied me just because of my hair and forehead. My dream is to be a great medic ninja and..." she paused again and glanced at Naruto before her whole face reddened and sat on her seat.

Iruka chuckled and continued to call the others. It was then the Chuunin noticed the next person he about to call. He took in a breath before saying, "Namikaze Naruto."

The class then shifted their attention to Naruto who was now standing up. They were surprised to see the son of the legendary Yondaime was with them.

"My name is Namikaze Naruto. My likes are my mother, my sister, training, and my best friend Sakura-chan. I hate my sister's teasing and people who are teasing Sakura-chan. My dream is..." he paused as he gazed out to the Hokage Monument."...to be the Hokage so that I can protect this village, just like my father did."

Any other kids looked at him in awe while Sakura smiled at him. As he sat down on his seat, he and Sakura could hear whispers flying around the class, mainly the girls were talking about the blond Namikaze.

"Wow, that's the Yondaime's son?"

"He's cute. I wonder if he had any girlfriend yet."

"He said his best friend is that girl with pink hair, right?"

"Bah, she's just a weird girl. He would be interested on more prettier girl."

"And that girl would be me!"

Sakura frowned as she heard the whispers while her inner persona cracked her knuckles and had fire on her eyes.

**"Those witches think that they can steal Naruto-kun away from me, huh? I'd like to see them to try!!"**

After the last student introduced herself, Iruka started the first lesson. Naruto had to suppress a groan and the urge to bash his head on the table as the Chuunin teacher taught him and the rest of the class about the history of Konoha.

* * *

Lunch hour...

Naruto finally released the urge from earlier as he groaned and banged his head on his desk for several times. During those hours of mental and patient torture—that's what he called for the history lesson, Naruto almost fallen sleep several times only for every time he was going to Sakura would reprimand him. It was no secret between the two friends that Naruto had little to none patience and couldn't sat down in a place for a long time, save for meditation exercise.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" asked a worried Sakura.

"I'm fine, Sakura-chan," answered Naruto "I never thought that Academy will be boring like this."

"I thought you were excited about this," replied Sakura as she and Naruto stood from their seat and made their way to outside where they will having their lunch.

"And my hope was being crushed," the blond sighed. "I was hoping to see something more at the academy."

"More than Kushina-san's training?" asked Sakura again and Naruto nodded. "Naruto-kun, this is the academy and they thought the basic stuffs here, not the things that your mother mostly taught you."

Naruto groaned again as he held the sides of his head and pulled his hair. "Damn it...! Mom and Sis told me that I will learn more here!"

"Well, that's partly true," reasoned Sakura.

The Namikaze heir then sighed. "Whatever it is, I think I'm lucky."

"Why is that, Naruto-kun?" the pink haired girl asked.

"Because I have you on my side, Sakura-chan," he answered with a smile.

Sakura herself quickly turned her face away to hid the blush on her face.

They then reached outside where other students sat on the tables with their own groups. Naruto and Sakura sat at one empty table. They then took out their lunch and ate it. As they enjoyed their lunch, someone coming to their table. It was a girl with black hair that tied in ponytail in the nape of the neck and had coal black eyes. She was wearing blue shirt with fan-like insignia on the back and black pants.

"Hey, can I eat with you two?" she asked politely.

"Sure," answered Naruto. "Uchiha Satsuki, right?" he asked as he recognized her as one of his classmates.

"I am, Namikaze Naruto, Haruno Sakura," she answered as she addressed her table mates.

"Wow, and I thought most of the Uchiha were emotionless, brooding, anti-socials," joked Naruto and Sakura elbowed him for that.

"Well, that is the stereotype for our clan. I'm an exceptional, along with my mother," answered Satsuki with a small laugh.

"Oh, you must be mean Mikoto-san," said Naruto as Satsuki nodded. Naruto knew about the Uchiha Matriarch because she was best friends with his mother.

"Though I can't say the same for my twin brother," she said as she casted a glance to her twin brother, Sasuke, who was sitting under a tree and eating his lunch silently, surrounded by a group of girls and sighed. "He's just too much like father, a typical Uchiha."

The three kids then continued to eat their lunch as they chatted a bit about random things of themselves.

"You actually wearing weights right now, Naruto?" asked Satsuki, surprised to hear that the blond was already having a difficult training regiment like that.

"Yup!" answered Naruto as he showed the band on his wrists. "I also have another pair of this on my ankle."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Naruto-kun," said a concrened Sakura.

"You know me, Sakura-chan. This is nothing to be worried about!" Naruto waved off the matter with his usual grin.

Satsuki watched the exchange between the two with a puzzled look and decided to ask.

"Can I ask you guys a question?"

"Sure, Satsuki-san. Go a head," answered Sakura.

"Are both of you...a couple or something?"

The reaction from those two were completely priceless in Satsuki's opinion. Naruto was choked on his food and Sakura was frozen on her place with reddening cheeks. Naruto then quickly reached out for water and drank it.

"What gives you the idea like that?! There's nothing between me and Sakura-chan! We're just frends! Right, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura could only nodded dumbly agreeing with her best friend while Inner Sakura had another idea than her main personality.

**"That's right! Naruto-kun is mine! So don't try to do anything funny with him, you witches!"**

"Sorry, it's just both of you were so close to each other," apologized Satsuki with a giggle. "You were giving people ideas, you know."

Naruto groaned as he slumped on the lunch table. "I've already teased enough at home by Setsu-nee and now I'm teased at school too! What did I do to you so that you hate me so much, Kami-sama?!"

Satsuki gave a stifled laugh at Naruto's dramatic moment who in return gave her a confused look along with Sakura.

"I'm sorry. It's just you were different than I expected. I always thought that the Hokage's son will be...eh you know, having more dignity."

"If you mean having more dignity is having a three hundred feet long pole stuck on your ass, than I absolutely have none," Naruto snorted as he took a bite from his lunch.

Sakura and Satsuki laughed hard at his remark so that they were holding their stomach and had tears on their eyes. Other students who had heard what Naruto said also joined in. Their thoughts and opinions about the son of the Yondaime was also quickly changed. Like Satsuki had said, they were expecting him to be more 'dignified'. But apparently he had a warm and cheerful personality along with the tendency for being dramatic and cracking jokes, something that someone who related to a famous person rarely had.

About half an hour and several kids trying to befriend Naruto (mostly girls—much to Sakura's ire) later, they all returned to the class. Here Naruto muttered about 'another hours of mental and patient torture', which made most of them laughed again.

* * *

**A/N: Re-edited here and there...Hope you enjoyed it as always.**

**Sky Zephyrus**


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 2

The blaring sound of alarm clock made Naruto awakened from his peaceful slumber. Slowly the blond Namikaze got up from his bed and yawned loudly before heading out from his room, making his way to the bathroom to take a shower. As he stripped his clothes and turned the shower on, the twelve years old preteen couldn't help to recall the things that happened ever since he first enrolled to the academy.

After the first day of the academy, he had made several good friends in the academy. Aside of Satsuki, they were Kiba, Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Ino. He also tried to befriend Satsuki's twin, Sasuke, but his attempt was failed and so did several other attempts and Naruto decided to leave him be.

Due to his early training he got from his mother and sister, it was suffice to say that Naruto was very skilled compared to his classmates. Add his looks and his bright, cheerful, friendly personality along with his status as the son of the Yondaime Hokage, he got himself several admirers—fan girls to be more specific just one week after he first enrolled. While this news had become a teasing material to Setsuna, Kushina wasn't so happy about it and so did Sakura. That's why the red haired former Jounin asked her to keep her son safe from those rabid fan girls, which the rosette happily accepted.

Speaking about his best friend, Sakura was also doing great in the academy. While Naruto was the top male student, Sakura was the second best female student losing to Satsuki who was the top female student—which was expected seeing that she was an Uchiha. Some of his classmates even joked that Naruto and Satsuki were a couple because of their closeness and due to the fact that they both were famous. Of course, Sakura didn't find the joke funny. That's aside, the pink haired girl was a kind of both best friend and rival to the Uchiha girl. They would compete in anything about their carrier as a kunoichi, which was a good motivation to Sakura. It was also during the 4 years in the academy that Naruto and Sakura have gotten closer than before. They would spent their time with training together and hanging out at Ichiraku or at the library—it was more like Sakura dragged Naruto to accompany her, seeing that Naruto not a big fan of reading, but he enjoyed it anyway.

Of course, there were also bad things happened during these four years. The one most notable and famous was the massacre of Uchiha clan, which was happened about three years ago. Uchiha Itachi, an ANBU captain, who was also the elder brother of Sasuke and Satsuki, slaughtered his clan in one night, leaving only Mikoto and his younger siblings as the survivors. After that incident, Sasuke become more distant than he was and lust for power to fulfill his ambition: to kill Itachi and avenge his clan. Satsuki herself was shaken. She didn't and never believed that her 'Ita-nii', who was a kind and loving elder brother, could do such a thing like massacring his own clan. She had estranged herself post the incident and didn't attend the academy for a whole month. After all, Satsuki was much closer to Itachi than Sasuke and he was her idol and inspiration to be a ninja. Itachi's sudden betrayal had left a never healing scar on her heart. It was after Naruto and Sakura forced their way to meet her and some words from the blond that Satsuki had returned to her old self, though Itachi's name was a taboo to say around her.

Naruto turned the shower off and dried himself as he was done with the reminiscing. He then headed for his room and reached for his wardrobe. Because of his weird passion with the color of orange, most of his clothes were colored in that color. Setsuna had reprimanded him about that, but his mother came to his defense and saying it was quite alright. Weird enough though, Naruto looks good on it.

Ten minutes later, Naruto was out from his room in his new set of clothes. It consists of orange jacket with black hood and black long sleeves with red swirl on each shoulder over a black shirt, orange pants with black flames on the ankle, black ninja sandals, and black fingerless glove along with his weight bands. He then headed to the dining room where his mother and sister were already there.

Kushina was now thirty five years old woman with her waist length red hair and green eyes, wearing red dark red coat over red kimono with pink lilies design on it, and the kimono was held together by orange obi. In other hand, Naruto's adopted sister, Setsuna, was now a twenty old years woman with black hair tied in spiky ponytail and blue eyes, wearing Jounin flak vest over a mesh net shirt, ANBU styled pants, bands on her wrists and ankle,her hitai ate was tied securely in her right bicep and her trusty nodachi was hanging over her left shoulder by a red string.

"Morning, mom, Setsu-nee," greeted Naruto as he took his seat on the table. "Are you going somewhere?" the blond addressed to his sister.

"Yeah, I'm going to meet with Anko and Kurenai before watching this year's Genin Exam," she answered as she was heading out from Namikaze Household. "Make sure you pass, okay?"

"I will, believe it!" assured her brother with a thumb up. "Say hello to Kakashi for me!"

Setsuna smiled and nodded at her brother before leaving the household with a quick 'I'm off'.

Kushina then turned to her son. "Are you sure you'll pass the test?"

"Of course, mom! I have training and studying a lot for today. I'm confident that I'll pass!" answered Naruto proudly.

"But remember son, 'Confidence is your greatest ally..." started Kushina.

"...And arrogance is my greatest enemy'," finished Naruto. "I won't forget all of your teachings, mom."

"Good to hear that," said Kushina as she grinned and ruffled her son's hair. Naruto returned his mother's gesture with his own grin.

After finishing his breakfast, he left for the academy. Villagers would greet him on his way to the academy and he happily returned the gesture. As he walked further, he couldn't shrug off the feeling that he was being followed. His instinct was proven right when he heard a voice he dreaded to hear for his four year of academy.

"THERE HE IS!! NARUTO-KUN!!!"

Turning around, the Namikaze saw a mob of his fan girls, about fifteen or so. They all started to have a mad dash toward him with a chorus of the loudest squeal Konoha ever heard.

"Crap..."

Using that technique Setsuna had taught him in case of something like this would happen, Naruto was gone in a poof smoke, leaving a bunch of disappointed fan girls. He then reappeared in front of academy. Looking around for any second wave of those evil beings, Naruto sighed in relieve when he found none. He then made his way to the classroom while chanting prayer to Kami-sama for no other fan girls on his way. Upon entering the class, another horde of fan girls were already on their way to mob him. Using a quick kawarimi, Naruto switched place with an unsuspecting Kiba. Upon realizing that they were not mobbing their idol, they all give a total beat down to the poor Inuzuka.

"Ow...Why do you use me as a replacement, Naruto?!" growled Kiba as he recovered from the beating.

"Sorry, I couldn't think of anything else for a replacement," answered Naruto as he walked to his seat next to Sakura.

"You could warn me first, you know..." muttered the feral looking boy as he walked back to his seat.

When the blond Namikaze sat on his seat, his fan girls tried to advance to him but a glare from the rosette next to him made them stopped their advance.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan. You're a life saver," said Naruto.

"No problem. After all, Kushina-san asked me to keep those...witches away from you." replied Sakura as she eyed the fan girls, making them shiver in fear

Over four years, Sakura had changed from a meek and shy girl into a much more open and outgoing girl. Her pink hair was now cut short and she kept it that way since she deemed that long hair would be impractical and will hinder her. She now was wearing a red vest with a zipper in the front and white circle on the back, pink skirt over a navy blue shorts, and a pair of white arm warmers. She really hated fan girls since to her they were nothing but a bunch of sissies that would brought shame to any women that took being kunoichi seriously—like Kushina and Tsunade who was her idol.

"Just not try to kill them, okay?" requested Naruto. He maybe didn't like them, but they were humans after all.

"I'm not promising anything," answered Sakura with a shrug.

**"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. I won't kill those witches...It would be too merciful for them..."** cackled Inner Sakura evilly.

Naruto then decided to look around the class to see what his other friends doing right now. Shikamaru was taking another nap while Chouji beside him was endlessly munching on his chips, Kiba was nursing his lumps and bruises while also petting Akamaru on the same time, Shino was watching the class stoically as he occasionally pushing his dark glasses with his forefinger, Sasuke was brooding like usual with nay care about anything arround him, Ino looked like she was daydreaming about something—accompanied by several low pitched squeals and giggles, Hinata was stealing glances at him and turned away with beet red face when their gaze met, and Satsuki was looking bored as she was balancing a kunai with her finger.

A moment later, Iruka and his assistant Mizuki entered the class. After shutting everyone with his 'Big Scary Head Jutsu', the scarred Chuunin called for the absent roll.

"Alright everyone, listen up," said Iruka as he finished the absent roll. "As you all already know, today we will have the Genin Examination. Any of you who passed this exam will be a ninja with the lowest rank, which is Genin. The examination will be divided by two part, which are the written test and practical test. The practical test will be divided again into physical endurance test, targeting test, genjutsu test, taijutsu test, and ninjutsu test."

The brown haired Chuunin paused to let his words sunk into his students' mind. "We will start with the written test. Mizuki-sensei will distribute the test sheets and do not flip them up until I tell you to."

Mizuki then distribute the papers to the Genin-to-bes and returned to his place next to Iruka when he finished his announcement.

"You all have time 60 minutes to do your test. Good luck to you all and you may begin now."

As instructed, the students flipped their test sheets and started to work on it. While Naruto was not a bookworm like Sakura or someone with high IQ like Shikamaru, he was able to answer the question at relative ease—even he sometimes fell asleep during the lesson. Naruto finished his test about forty five minutes later and glanced at Sakura who was already finished her test five minutes ago. Soon, all of his friends also finished the test about five minutes before the time up.

"Alright, time's up!" announced Iruka. "Please stop writing and stay on your seat while Mizuki will collect your sheets."

The silver haired Chuunin then do as he told to and when he finished he put the stack of papers in Iruka's table.

"Alright, for now you all will take a break fifteen minutes before continuing to the practical exam. Please head to the training ground after the break because we will start the practical exam shortly after that," said the Chuunin as the students walked out from the class.

"Ahh...finally the practical exam," commented Naruto as he stretched his arms. He was walking with Sakura in the hall of the academy. "It is way better than sitting around and answering questions that have no relationship at all with being a ninja."

"But at least it will train your brain," reasoned Sakura.

"If you want to train your brain, then play shougi," replied Naruto.

"True, but shougi can be really boring too," retorted someone from behind.

Naruto and Sakura turned around to see their friend, Satsuki. She was wearing blue unzipped vest with Uchiha insignia on the back over a black tight long sleeved shirt and white shorts.

"It's good thing that Shikamaru wasn't here. You know he loves shougi as much as I love ramen. He would maim you for that," said Naruto.

"Probably he's going to do nothing. He probably gets annoyed and says 'troublesome Uchiha...'," remarked Satsuki with a shrug.

Naruto and Sakura chuckled at her remark.

"Come on now, Naruto-kun, Satsuki-chan. We should head to the training ground since we don't have to do anything during the break anyway," suggested Sakura.

The three friends then headed to the academy's training ground, the place where practical exam took place. There are the obstacle course, dummy post, and a huge clearing.

"Now, then what should we do?" asked Satsuki.

"Maybe we can watch the clouds or something," suggested Naruto as he lied on his back and folded his arms behind his head.

"You really should stop hanging around Shikamaru too much. He is rubbing you off," said Sakura as she sat next to him and hugged her knee.

"Stop talking about him, you guys. He's probably sneezing a lot right now," said Satsuki as she sat down next to the pink haired girl.

As if on her cue, a certain black haired lazy genius was sneezing.

"You okay, Shikamaru? Do you get a cold or something?" asked Chouji.

"Nah, probably troublesome people were talking about me right now," answered Shikamaru as he continued to watch the clouds. He then sneezed again and again. "Stop talking about me already, damn it!!"

"Did you just heard Shikamaru cursing?" asked Satsuki.

"Nah, probably someone else. There's no way that lazy bum would ever curse. It's juts too troublesome to him," answered Naruto.

"I told you to stop talking about me! I can't even watch the clouds peacefully with all of those sneezes!!" they heard someone shouted and laughed.

15 minutes later, all of the students arrived in the training ground. The first one who came was Sasuke along with his ever-so-faithfully-blind fan girls. He coldly ignored them as if they were never existed at all.

"Satsuki-chan, do you think Sasuke is a gay?" whispered Sakura to the Uchiha girl.

Satsuki giggled in response. "Maybe, seeing that he would ignore anything that walks and had a pair of breast, save for mother and me to an extent. Do you know that he was shooting glances to Naruto once in a while? I think he had a crush on you, Naruto."

Hearing her response, Naruto was very pale that would make Orochimaru shame and Sakura was looking that she would kill a certain black haired boy.

**"Why that little-?! There's no way I would let that...that _man-lover _to be around Naruto-kun!!"**stated Inner Sakura as she was stabbing a straw doll with Sasuke's picture with a bunch of needles.

"Y-You're j-joking, r-right?" asked Naruto, horrified with the prospect of him with a fan boy. Those fan girls were already a hell to him and a fan boy, a gay at the top of that, would be just too much!

"Calm down, I'm just messing with you," answered Satsuki with giggles.

Naruto breathed a long relieved sigh while Sakura also was a bit relieved, she still glaring daggers at Sasuke. The said boy noticed the murderous glare that the pink haired girl sent to him and couldn't help but wonder what did he do so that she was pissed with him. He didn't want to admit it, but he was scared with Sakura—like the majority of the boys on his class. After all, it wasn't everyday that you met a girl that could send a person sprawling for a good ten meters with a single punch just because she was pissed off.

As soon as the other students and the teachers arrive in the training ground, the practical part of the Genin exam began. The first part was he physical endurance test. The objective of this test was to get through the course as fast as possible. Along the course there were obstacles to get in the way. To Naruto, the obstacles on the course were a pale comparison to what he had through many times before during his training with his mom and sis, the Gauntlet. Remembering about the unpleasant memory of a part of his training made him shudder, but he managed to shrug it off. When it was his turn, Naruto finished the course with the fastest time. He later was rewarded with the squeal of his fan girls—some others who close to them swore that their eardrum was burst, cheer from his friends, a glare from Sasuke, and a smile from Sakura.

Next was the targeting test. In this test, the students have aim their shuriken and kunai to the targets on the dummy post. One by one, the examinees step forward and did their test until it was Naruto's turn again. He eyed the dummy post before shurikens clutched in between his finger and lodged into the targets in the dummy post in flash, all of them were bull's eye. He then switched with kunais, threw them, and they all lodged in the same fashion of his shurikens—all bull's eye.

After the targeting test, next was the genjutsu test. The objective of this test was to break from the teacher's genjutsu and placed a genjutsu to the teacher. Naruto didn't have much talent with genjutsu, so he didn't aced this part of test. Instead, the one who aced this test was Sakura.

The taijutsu test coming up next. The students will be paired against each other in a taijutsu only spar while Iruka will observe and giving points to the students. After several students before him it was Sasuke's turn. He then took a paper from the box Mizuki brought with him to determine his opponent in the test. He smirked as he saw the one who he will fight with.

Namikaze Naruto.

"Will Namikaze Naruto come forward?" announced Mizuki.

Naruto walked forward with a sigh as his fan girls and his friends were cheering for him—Sasuke's own fan girls also cheered for their idol. The two boy eyed each other for a while before Sasuke spoke first.

"You'll going down, Namikaze. There's no way you could defeat me this time."

Naruto didn't response to Sasuke's obvious taunt and slid into his the taijutsu stance his mother taught to him, Uzu no Mai: Hiryuu, a style that focuses on speed and power.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Sasuke taunted again as the previous taunt didn't work and slid into the Uchiha's taijutsu style.

Naruto's face was blank from any expression and the Uchiha boy was getting irritated for every second. The blond mentally patted himself for turning Sasuke's plan against himself.

"Uchiha Sasuke versus Namikaze Naruto. Begin!"

Sasuke suddenly jolted out with an amazing speed and lashed a punch to Naruto's face, only to had the blond tilted his head aside and punched the onyx eyed boy's gut. Sasuke gasped as the as the air was forced out from him and Naruto didn't waste any time by launching a kick to his chin, continued with double palm thrust to his chest. The Jinchuuriki watched as his opponent sprawling for several meters and glared at him as soon as he recovered. The Uchiha boy lashed at him again and this time Naruto intercepted his attack with another punch. Their fists collided with each other, making Sasuke flinched by the strength of the blond and recoiled a bit. Naruto continued his with a sweep from his leg which was jumped over by Sasuke and quickly by using his hands as a spring, the blue eyed blond kicked him with both of his foots. The Uchiha boy was again sprawling and this time he landed harshly on his back as he skidded for a good four meters before stopped.

"That's enough!" called Iruka as he scribbled something on the clipboard. "Good work, you two. You can go back to your place.

Naruto dropped his stance and sighed before walking back to his friends with his trademark grin plastered on his face. Mizuki was trying to help Sasuke to stand when the said boy swatted his hand aside and glared at Naruto with righteous fury, jealousy, and rage on his eyes. Aside from the aches and bruises on him, the one hurt most was his pride. Fuming and bristling, he returned to his place and gave Naruto a silent murderous glare.

After the rest of he class did their test, they all went for the final part of the practical test, the ninjutsu test. The goal of this test was to perform the Henge no Jutsu, Kawarimi no Jutsu, and Bunshin no Jutsu. At first, Naruto was having a trouble with Bunshin no Jutsu, since his chakra capacity was so large that made him had a hard time to control it. But thanks to the drill by his mother and sister, now he got that jutsu down—although he himself was favoring the more advanced the version of this jutsu. It was his turn again and he performed the three basic jutsus flawlessly—with a little smoke which was a sign of a good chakra control. He then received his forehead protector and tied it on his forehead.

After the ninjutsu test, the students were back to the class while waiting for Iruka and Mizuki to sum up the score from each test. Several minutes, the two Chuunins entered the class and announced the total score for each students. The highest score goes to Naruto, along with the title of rookie of the year. He was rewarded with a rain of applause from his fan girls and friends alike. Naruto himself had the tendency to blush and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a bit embarrassed with the attention given to him. The only person who didn't happy with his achievements was Sasuke, who was still glaring at him.

Iruka dismissed the class and told them to come to the academy one week after today for the team assignment. As he walked out from the class, Naruto was assaulted yet again by another applauses from his friends while Sasuke walked out of the class silently without anyone noticing.

"Congratulations, Naruto!" said Chouji.

"You're so amazing, Naruto-kun! As expected from Yondaime-sama's son!" added Ino.

"You're the man, Naruto!" Kiba joined in.

"C-Congratulations, N-Naruto-kun," said Hinata timidly.

"Thanks guys," replied Naruto with a slight reddening cheek for being embarrassed by the praise of his friends.

Sakura smiled at her best friend and said, "Hey, Naruto-kun? Want to go to Ichiraku today? I'm paying."

"Sure, Sakura-chan," replied Naruto with a smile. He then turned to his friends and asked, "Does anyone want to come with us?"

Naruto did not notice a slight frown on Sakura's face when he extended the invitation, but Satsuki noticed this.

"Sorry, I can't. My mother asked me to do some errands," replied the Uchiha girl.

Sakura looked confused when her black haired friend winked at her and her lips moved with no voice came out.

_'Good luck.'_

The pink haired girl smiled at her friend's understanding. Shikamaru noticed this and he whispered something to Chouji's ear who nodded in response.

"Sorry Naruto, I can't come with you. My mother is promising me a grand lunch for my graduation," said Chouji.

"Same here. I promised for another round of Shougi with my old man," said Shikamaru.

Kiba caught the drift as well and so did Shino.

"Sorry, buddy. Sis is going to...give Akamaru another check up today," said Kiba while his ninken whimpered at the word of 'check up'. The feral looking boy mumbled an apology to his partner.

"I apologize not to be able to accept your invitation, Naruto-san," said Shino.

Naruto's slumped a bit after he heard his friends rejected his offer. "Oh, okay..."

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. I'll accompany you," said Ino admonishingly as if she was trying to flirt with him.

"Uh, Ino? Don't you have to do your part time job at your family's flower shop?" asked Chouji as the big boned boy noticed Sakura was giving a look at the blond girl, a look that promised pain.

Ino cursed under her breath as she lost her chance to spend her time together with Naruto.

"I-I'm s-sorry, N-Naruto-kun. F-Father e-expected m-me t-to b-be a-at h-home a-as s-soon a-as t-the a-academy o-over," said Hinata. She was disappointed that she couldn't hang out with her crush because of her father.

Naruto sighed dejectedly as he walked out from the class with Sakura on his side. Noticing the depressed mood of her best friend, the pink haired girl decided to ask.

"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?"

"Hey, Sakura-chan? Is it okay for me to be selfish one time?" he asked back to her.

Sakura was taken aback by his question. She knew one thing that become a special trait to Naruto, which was the selflessness of him. And that's why he is so special to her. Back then when they were younger, Naruto would ditch his training just to hang out with her or played with her, much of Kushina and Setsuna's amusement—even though they made it look like they were feeling the exact opposite.

"Of course it is okay, Naruto-kun," answered Sakura. "You're the most selfless people I've ever met, so I think it is alright for you to be selfish right one time."

Naruto gave her a smile before gazing longingly to the sky of Konoha as he and his best friend walked out from the academy.

"I want to hang out with all of my friends," he said and Sakura blinked twice. "Now that we all became a ninja, we won't be able to hang out together too much since we will busy with trainings and mission."

"Naruto-kun..." Sakura could feel that guilt started to creep inside her and mentally berated herself for wanting only to hang out with Naruto, without thinking about his feeling.

"But...I think it's okay to be only two of us hanging around together," said Naruto, breaking Sakura from her stupor.

"Huh?"

"Because I'm hanging out with my best friend! No matter how many I time hang out with you Sakura-chan, I never get bored!" stated Naruto with a grin on his face.

"T-Thank you, Naruto-kun," replied Sakura with a blush on her face.

"Come on! Let's go to Ichiraku! I'll pay the half!"

Sakura let a smile carved on her face as Naruto and her made their way to Ichiraku. The pink haired girl glad that she met and befriended a boy like him, which was very rare. He was kind, caring, determined, funny, selfless, chivalrous, and valued friendship. That's why she enjoyed his companionship more than anything else and that is the reason why she liked him, more than a friend in a sense.

_'Maybe not today, Naruto-kun...but I will definitely one day...'_

* * *

Hokage tower, several minutes earlier...

Several Jounins who would teach the new graduates from the academy watched how the test went via Hiruzen's crystal ball. Each of them had their impression about it.

"So, how do you all think about this year's Genin exam?" asked Hiruzen to all Jounin in present.

"Well, it went the way we predicted," said Kakashi as he flipped through another page of his Icha Icha Paradise. "Naruto becomes rookie of the year."

"That's my little brother for you, though he won't bother much with that title," replied Setsuna proudly before she glared to the silver haired Jounin. "Put that damn book down Kakashi or I'll cut it to ribbons!"

The cyclopean Jounin muttered about something 'not appreciating work of art' under his breath as he grudgingly placed his precious book on his utility pouch. "There are also other kids who showed their potential, but not much."

"That kid is really good for a new graduated Genin. I'd like to teach him," said Asuma, refering to Naruto, as he took another drag on his cigarette.

"Sakura is also a good one. She had great chakra control and a natural in genjutsu. I think I will having a great time to teach her," stated Kurenai.

"Too bad for you, Asuma, Kurenai. I don't think those two will be under your tutelage," said Setsuna.

"Why is that, Setsuna?" asked a curious Kurenai. "Like I said earlier, Sakura is a natural in genjutsu thanks to her chakra control. It would be waste of talent," reasoned the red eyed woman.

"True enough, but Sakura wanted to be a medic ninja," replied the blue eyed woman. "She had the brain and the great chakra control needed to be one—which I believe that hers was near perfect. Sakura is a more natural medic to a genjutsu user and also, I believe she had the potential to inherit Tsunade's inhuman strength."

"Is that true?" asked Genma.

"It is. Naruto once told me that there was a girl that teased her about her forehead and the said girl was sent flying for ten meters with a single punch."

"Well, there goes the reason why Sakura wouldn't be Kurenai's student," said Asuma with a nervous laugh. "Still, why I can't teach Naruto? I can help him with his wind affinity."

"He already mastered the basic wind elemental manipulation at age ten," answered Setsuna.

"He did? How long did he take to master it?" asked Aoba, surprised to hear the news.

"About three days and he even managed to incorporate wind elemental chakra to mother's kenjutsu style recently," said Setsuna, once again pride was filling her statement.

"I guess he is a genius, just like sensei," said Kakashi with his eye smile.

"He is not just a genius, Kakashi. He is a hardworking genius," Setsuna corrected the cyclopean sliver haired Jounin. "If he just an ordinary genius, then he wouldn't be so balanced in taijutsu, ninjutsu and kenjutsu by the end of the academy."

All other Jounins could only gape in amazement. That kid was only twelve and already that skilled?

"Your little brother sure is amazing, eh Setsu-chan?" praised Anko.

"Of course, Anko-chan. He learned from the best," Setsuna smirked to the Tokubetsu Jounin.

"And you look sexy with that smirk," the purple haired woman flirted with the adopted Namikaze.

"Not now, Anko-chan. If you behave now I'll treat you some dango later," said Setsuna .

The Snake Mistress of Konoha grinned at her bribe.

"Anyway, back to what I said earlier, Naruto would need someone to help him to improve on those three aspect I said earlier. I'm not saying that you're a bad teacher to him Asuma, but he needed to keep those specialty of him in balance," reasoned Setsuna.

"Point taken," said the chain smoking Jounin. "So I guess I'm going back to my original plan, huh? Teaching the new generation of Ino-Shika-Chou."

"How about the Uchiha twins?" asked Raidou.

"The council asked, no, ordered me to teach them seeing that I'm the only active senior Jounin who had the Sharingan," said Kakashi with a sigh. "The problem is, Satsuki and Sasuke didn't sit well together."

A collective sigh was heard by several Jounins and the Hokage. Despite that they were siblings, Sasuke was cold toward his sister.

"We will continue to discuss this matter at the team assignment. For now you all dismissed," said Hiruzen.

All Jounins left the room by the door, leaving Hiruzen leaning to his seat. He then gazed to the view of Konoha via his office's window. He had a feeling that this year's batch was going to be the greatest generation of Genin Konoha ever had.

* * *

**A/N: Re-edited here and there to meet the satisfaction.**


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 3

One week passed in a rather half boring way to Sakura. The boring half was the activity was repetitive. Wake up, take shower, eat breakfast, training, eat lunch, training again, go home, take another shower, eating dinner, reading books about medic, and go to sleeping before repeating the same activity for the next day. The other interesting half was that she did her training with Naruto. True to what he said after graduation, they won't seeing each other for a while if they were on different teams because of missions and trainings—though they somehow optimist that they would be in the same team—so she spent as much time as possible to hang around with her best friend and crush. She developed a feeling to the blond haired boy ever since they first met and after they hang around together for a long time, the feelings had gotten stronger. The way Naruto treated her just helped her to develop that feeling. He would help with her taijutsu training by pointing the flaws on her stances and katas, helping her with some ninjutsu, and even getting scrolls and books from his library to help with her medic studies. Kushina and Setsuna also helped her in her training. The red haired former Jounin once joked that she would like to help her future daughter-in-law's training, much to Naruto and Sakura's flustered reaction.

Today was the last day of the new graduates day off, so Naruto and Sakura are going to create their ninja identification card. On their way to the Hokage tower, they saw Konohamaru, the grandson of the Hokage, chased by Ebisu, his mentor. Sakura met Konohamaru two years ago when her mother and Naruto along with his family attended a party at the Hokage Tower. The nine years old boy spotted Naruto and ran to him.

"Naruto-nii-chan! Help me!" said Konohamaru as he hid behind Naruto. The blond looked at him in confusion.

"Konohamaru-sama! Please return to your training!" said Ebisu as he finally caught up with the boy. "Oh, Good morning, Naruto-san, Sakura-san," he greeted the two preteen.

"Good morning, Ebisu-san," Naruto returned the gesture. "Is Konohamaru here ditched from his training again?" he asked as he shoved Konohamaru forward.

"Yes, he is."

Naruto frowned and then asked to the younger boy, "Is that true, Konohamaru?"

"Y-Yes, nii-chan," answered Konohamaru.

"Why is that?"

"Because what this closet pervert taught me is boring and useless!"

Naruto and Sakura gave an incredulous look toward Ebisu who was coughing lightly and his face reddening slightly.

"Ebisu-san, what did you teach to Konohamaru-kun?" asked Sakura, ignoring the closet pervert remark from Konohamaru.

"I taught him how to balance leaf with his forehead and repeating several hand seals to make him remember them," said the black-glasses wearing Jounin.

"Did you already taught him how to tap his chakra?" asked Naruto.

"I did, it was several days ago."

The blond preteen then turned to the black haired boy. "Why did you say that the training is boring and useless Konohamaru? The leaf balancing is a practice to refine your chakra control and repeating hand seals will give you an edge in a battle, seeing that faster you formed hand seals you can perform a jutsu faster than your opponent did."

"But it's still didn't help me to be a Hokage!" retorted Konohamaru.

Naruto sighed. He know that the young kid wanted to be acknowledged as himself rather than the grandson of the Sandaime Hokage, much like Naruto wanted to be acknowledged as himself rather than the son of the legendary Yondaime Hokage.

"I know that. But what kind of training you want to help you to be a Hokage?" asked Naruto.

"A Jutsu that can defeat the old man! With his defeat, I can be the Hokage!"

Sakura giggled at Konohamaru's exclamation. His mind was still young and the way he think was very simple. She found his naivety was very cute, though Inner Sakura stated that Naruto was way cuter.

"Konohamaru-kun, do you think defeating Sandaime-sama will makes you the Hokage?"

"Of course, Sakura-nee-chan! Grandpa was the strongest ninja in this village so he become the Hokage, right? So if I defeat him, I will be the strongest ninja and become the Hokage!"

"You're not even a Genin," said Naruto, shooting down the younger boy's hope.

"S-So, what?! If I defeat the old man, then I will be the Hokage! It's a shortcut!" Konohamaru retorted back.

"Konohamaru, listen," said Naruto as he placed his hands on his little brother figure. "There's no short cut to be a Hokage. If you want to be one, you have to train hard by your own sweat and blood. That way you will be recognized as a true Hokage and people will respect you for it."

"Naruto-nii-chan..." Konohamaru stared at his big brother and idol with awe. A grin then formed his face. "Alright, just you watch nii-chan! I'm going to train hard and become a good Hokage! You better not slacking off because I won't admit you as my rival if you do!"

"I won't, believe it!" Naruto grinned back at the younger boy.

"Alright, you closet pervert! Let's get back to training!" shouted Konohamaru as he ran back to his training place followed by Ebisu who was looking flustered about the closet pervert remark.

"Why did Konohamaru-kun called Ebisu-san a closed pervert?" asked Sakura as the mentor and student were far from the pair.

"I don't know," answered Naruto with a shrug. "Come on Sakura-chan, let's get our ID created."

* * *

The next day...

Class 303 of the academy was already full with the students that had graduated from the Academy's graduation exam. All of them were doing their own activities, like chatting with their friends, day dreaming about the most famous boys in the class—in the case of fan girls, or brooding—in the case of Sasuke. While the new Genins were wrapped up on their activities, Naruto entered the class in his usual set of clothes. However, one thing that made the difference was a pair of kodachis sheathed on his hips by a belt. The kodachis were gifts from his mother after graduating from the academy. He calmly made his way to his seat next to Sakura, hoping that no one, especially his fan girls—he managed to avoid and didn't meet any of them along the way to the academy, didn't caught the sight of him until he reached somewhere near his seat.

"Oi, Namikaze. What's with the swords?"

It was then Sasuke decided to ruin the moment by notifying his arrival. All of Naruto's fan girls instantly perked up by his name and jumped, literally, from their seat and rushed their way to him. The blond Gennin cursed under his breath and using Shunsin no Jutsu, he disappeared in poof of smoke and reappeared in his seat.

"There goes my peaceful morning," Naruto grumbled as he sat down.

Some moments later, Iruka entered the class without Mizuki accompanied him. The news said that he was caught stealing the Forbidden Scroll at the night after the graduation. Iruka then gave the new graduates a long and boring speech about their status as the lowest rank of Konoha's shinobi corps and vague things about 'things that a true ninja can do with closed eyes'. Naruto supressed the urge to snort when he heard that. His mother and Setsu-nee had told him about the tedious D-ranked missions that he had to take when he become a Genin.

"Alright, now for the team assignments," said Iruka, gaining the attention of the new graduates. Everyone started to whispering among themselves and started to wonder who would be teamed up with them while the fan girls were hoping to be teamed with Naruto or Sasuke.

"Team 6...Uchiha Sasuke, Shimura Sai, and Mizuhachi Ami."

An extremely loud squeal was heard from a purple haired girl as soon as the word left Iruka's mouth. Sasuke merely grunted in annoyance to response and another Sasuke's fan girls were groaning in disappointment.

"How could she squeal that hard?" asked Sakura as she rubbed her sore ears.

"Don't ask me. I'm not a girl," answered Naruto who earned an elbow from the pink haired girl next to him.

"Now for team 7...Namikaze Naruto..."

At this, Naruto's fan girls prayed to be in a team with him so did Sakura.

_'Please...let me in a team with Naruto-kun...!'_

**"If I'm not with Naruto-kun, then anyone who set the team would suffer!"**

"...Uchiha Satsuki..."

Sakura's hope was shot down at that. She knew that a Genin team would be consist of two shinobis and one kunoichi. Tears were threatening to form on her eyes, but she calmed down after she felt Naruto put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. She remembered that warm smile of him always brightened her up anytime when she was down in the mood. Though now, she thought that she wouldn't seeing that smile so often anymore.

"...and Haruno Sakura."

Sakura's head jolted up when she heard her name called. Did she hear just right? She was in a team with Naruto and Satsuki?

"Iruka-sensei! How come did Naruto get two girls as his teammates?" protested Kiba.

"Because the number of this year's kunoichi graduates were uneven, Kiba," answered the scarred Chuunin. "Also, this team was chosen with the consideration of Hokage-sama himself."

A smile carved into Sakura's face so did her two teammates. To all of them, this is the team that they wished for. Of course, the only one who happy with the team set up was the members of team 7. All of Naruto's fan girls groaned and so did Ino. Hinata also looked that she was disappointed.

"Team 8 will be consists of Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuuga Hinata. Team 9 is still active from last year. Team 10 will be Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino."

Kiba was literally hopping in his seat because he was happy that Hinata, his crush, was on a team with him. Ino banged her head in her desk, clearly showing unhappiness and disappointment with her team. She was hoping that she would be with Naruto, not with a lazy ass and a fat ass! (she didn't want to say it out loud because she afraid that Naruto would hate her)

"That's all for now. Your Jounin teacher will pick you up after lunch. For now, you all dismissed."

With that, all of the new graduates left with their teams for lunch including team 7.

"I can't believe we all in a team. It's just unbelievable!" cheered Sakura happily.

**"Hurray for me! More time together with Naruto-kun!!"** Inner Sakura also cheered as she waved the flag with chibi Naruto and confetti flying around.

"Yeah. To me, it's a dream team," replied Naruto with a smile.

"Come on guys, let's have our lunch before we continue the chatter," said Satsuki as she left with he teammates.

The three genins then had their lunch on a table in the academy's courtyard. Sakura had brought a bento for Naruto whom in return happily accepted it. If there's anything to Naruto that more delicious than a ramen was Sakura's bento. He always liked her cooking no matter what she cooked, much to her embarrassment and joy. Satsuki also opened her lunch, which was a curry rice. Not just any curry rice, but Satsuki's special, an extremely spicy curry that would even knock an adult out. The curry was bright red in color like lava and had a strong spicy smell that stung anyone's nose save for the Uchiha girl herself. It was no secret that Uchiha Satsuki addicted to extremely spicy curry, much like how Naruto and Kushina addicted to ramen.

"Uh, Satsuki? Is it just my imagination that your curry seems spicier than the usual?" asked Naruto as he looked at his teammate's lunch.

"It is! Twice spicier, twice more delicious, and twice the joy!!" Satsuki squealed as she finished her line, like how Naruto and Sasuke's fan girl would squeal when their idol did something cool. The Uchiha girl then looked at Naruto with blank look on her face. "You want my curry, didn't you?"

"N-No, no, no, no! G-Go ahead and enjoy your curry! I won't bother about that!"

Satsuki smiled and took a spoon of her curry while Naruto breathed a relieved sigh as he began to eat his lunch as well. He knew better not to disturb Satsuki with her curry or else...she could be more dangerous than a mother bear to her cub. In that case she was the mother bear and her curry was the cub.

They then chatted about random things or what did they do on their one week free time. Satsuki's chesire cat-like grin never left her face as she heard that Naruto and Sakura trained together last week. For a reasonable reason, Naruto knew what will come next.

"So basically you two spend your time together last week with a hot super secret training? Wow, I'm jealous!"

Naruto groaned in response. "Just as I thought..." The blond then noticed that his pink haired friend was beet red in her face and sat frozen on her place. "Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"

The said girl's mind was somewhere else, totally unaware that her friend looked at her worriedly.

_'Hot...super secret...training...'_ that word was still echoing inside her head. She did training with Naruto, but was it hot and super secret?

**"Damn we did! We were having a hot super secret training with Naruto-kun last week!**. **Remember when he so close to us to correct our taijutsu kata? He was so close!!" **squealed Inner Sakura with two thumbs up

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's yelling finally broke Sakura from her stupor.

"W-What is it, Naruto-kun?"

"Are you okay? You just sat there and your face is all red! I thought you are sick or something, Sakura-chan," said Naruto worriedly.

"I'm alright, Naruto-kun. Thanks for your concern," replied Sakura with a smile.

The blond sighed in relieve as he and his pink haired childhood friend returned to eat their lunch. Unknown to them, Satsuki watched their interaction with a small almost sad smile on her face.

_'They sure are great with each other. Who am I to get on their way?'_

The bell rang several moments later, signing the end of the lunch break. All Genins and their team returned to the class to wait for their Jounin instructor. One by one, Jounin instructors came and picked their teams until there were only team 6, team 7, team 8, and team 10. The door then slid open, revealing a familiar black haired and blue eyed Jounin.

"Setsu-nee? What are you doing here?" asked Naruto as he saw his sister.

"What else, Naruto? I'm a Jounin instructor for you and your team," answered Setsuna with a grin.

"Huh? Wait, what? When did you-?"

"Now, now, I'll answer your question later. Meet me at the courtyard, okay?" the blue eyed woman then left the room via a Shunsin no Jutsu.

Naruto sighed and grumbling about stupid sister under his breath before he stood up and left the room also, followed by his two teammates leaving equally surprised classmates. They all arrived at the courtyard where they had their lunch not a long time ago and saw Setsuna sat on a table where she waved at them and motioned to sat the same table with her.

"Okay then. I'm ready to answer your question. First, you all must be wondering why I'm a Jounin instructor, right?" she asked and all of them nodded. "Well, let's just say that I'm bored and I needed a change of pace," Setsuna answered with a grin, causing her team to sweat drop. "Alright, enough of the chit chat. Let's get into the introduction!"

"What's the point in introduction when we already know each other?" asked Naruto.

"That's right, Setsuna-sensei," Satsuki voiced her agreement.

"Because it's a formality and a good start of a good team," answered the Jounin. "Alright then I'll start. My name is Namikaze Setsuna. I like my family, my friends—Anko and Kurenai, and kenjutsu. I hate perverts and arrogant bastards who think that they are a gift from Kami just because they are hailed as genius and their kekkei genkai. My hobby is training, teasing my little brother over here," she motioned to Naruto who snorted in response while his two teammates giggled. "and cooking. My dream is to be a top swordswoman in Konoha."

Setsuna breathed in and out as soon as she finished her introduction. "There, simple right? Now it's your turn, miss emo," she pointed out to Satsuki.

"Hey, I'm not an emo! My twin is!" the Uchiha girl retorted as she crossed her arm under her chest. "My name is Uchiha Satsuki. I like my friends—Naruto and Sakura, my mother, and curry. I hate perverts, jerks, fan girls, my twin Sasuke and anyone who dare to touch my curry!" the black haired girl yelled making her teammates and instructor sweatdropped. "My hobby is training and other stuffs I like to do on my spare time. My dream is to be a great kunoichi and..." at this point, Satsuki turned her gaze to the sky above. "…to seek an answer from a person."

Both Naruto and Sakura looked at her sympathetically while Setsuna's expression softened a bit. _'She did hold a grudge against Itachi, but at least she only looked for an answer for his actions, not hell bent on revenge like Sasuke.'_

"Alright your turn, pinkie," Setsuna mentioned to Sakura whose her left eye twitched when she heard her nickname.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like my best friend Naruto-kun and my friendly rival Satsuki-chan. I hate people who picked me because of my forehead, those sissy fan girls, perverts, and arrogant jerks like Uchiha Sasuke. My hobby is training and reading books. My dream is to be a top medic ninja in Konoha and a personal dream that I won't share to anyone!"

The pink haired girl half yelled at the last part and blushing. Naruto blinked in confusion while Setsuna smiled a bit at that. _'She should have told him about it already. Mom is already gave the green light to her. She must be afraid that my dense and stupid little brother doesn't feel the same to her.'_ The Jounin then noticed that Satsuki had a sad smile on her face at Sakura's last part of introduction. _'So Satsuki also liked my brother? Wow. But it seems that she would give up on her feeling for Sakura's sake. A noble act for a girl like her.'_

"Alright Mr. Sunshine, you're up!" Setsuna then pointed to Naruto who clearly showed his irritation about his nickname.

He sighed to calm himself down before he started to speak. "My name is Namikaze Naruto. I like my best friend Sakura-chan, my other friends like Satsuki here, Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji and the others, ramen, bento made by Sakura-chan, my mother and you sis; to a certain extent. I hate stuck up pricks like Sasuke-teme, traitors, fan girls, and you again to a certain extent. My hobby is training and hanging out with my friends; especially with Sakura-chan. My dream is to be a Hokage that even surpassed my dad."

Setsuna grinned at his introduction while Sakura was blushing like a storm. _'He mentioned Sakura three times and he didn't even noticed she was blushing. Yup, it is official that they are both in love, but my totally dense and stupid little brother didn't notice it.'_

"Now that the introduction was done, let's get into the business," although her tone was still cheerful, Naruto noticed a bit of seriousness on it. "We will have your first assignment tomorrow which is...the true Genin exam."

The three new Genins shocked when they heard that.

"Wait a minute, Setsuna-sensei. We already had our Genin exam! Why did we have to take another one?" asked Sakura as she voiced the general confusion on her team.

"The academy's exam is only to test that you all have the basic skills needed to be a Genin. The true Genin exam will test you if you really have what it takes to be a Genin of Konoha. This test have a high failure rate about 67 percent," the three Genins surprised to hear that. "Every year, from around thirty new graduates, only nine or twelve of them that become active Genin while the rest return to the academy with stand-by status or retire and enter the auxiliary academy to be a civilian," Setsuna explained to team 7.

"What the test would be, Setsuna-sensei?" asked Naruto as he addressed his adoptive sister professionally.

"Although I love you so much my dear little brother, I can't tell you about that," answered Setsuna with a grin. "Okay, that's all for now. Meet me at training ground 15 tomorrow at 7 AM sharp. Bring all of your ninja tools for tomorrow because I want you to go all out. Dismissed." with a puff of smoke, Setsuna disappeared from the courtyard.

The three Genins then silent as they looked at each befire Naruto spoke first.

"I never thought that we will have to face another test again."

"What do you think the test will be, Naruto-kun?" asked Sakura.

"Sis said that the academy Genin exam was to test whether the students have the basic skills to be a Genin, while the true Genin exam will test us whether any of us have what it takes to be a Genin," stated Naruto as he scratched his chin. "Can you girls guess it?"

"If she was meaning any kind of exceptional skills, then we would have passed right away. I mean she is your sister and she must be already know your and Sakura's skill. As for me, I think she already heard about it. I mean I'm an Uchiha after all," replied Satsuki as she shivered at the last part. "Ugh, I can't believe I just said that. It feels just plain wrong and out of character from me."

Her teammates only laughed at her remark.

"She also said that she wants us to go all out," pointed Sakura.

They all were thinking about things that Setsuna possibly test them. She already knew about their individual skills, so the biggest possibility that what she would test them was...

"Teamwork!!" they all shouted in union as they managed to guess what their test will be.

"She wanted to test us of our effectiveness as a team!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Since she already knew what our skills individually, I think that's reasonable," added Satsuki.

"Alright, now that we already guessed for tomorrow's test, why don't we have some training? We can also discuss the strategy that we can use against Setsu-nee," Naruto suggested and his two teammates nodded in agreement.

Team 7 then decided to have their training at Naruto's house since Setsuna wasn't going to be there until after sunset. They also asked Kushina to be their spar partner, which she gladly accepted. After all, Kushina herself wanted to keep her skill sharp. The red haired former Jounin was surprised to hear that team 7 was able to guess what their test would be, even though she didn't directly implied that their test IS going to be teamwork test..They sparred for hours and Kushina gave them some pointer on their teamwork and their jutsus.

As the the day ended, both Sakura and Satsuki left the Namikaze compound and headed to their respective houses. Naruto himself took a shower before having his dinner and went to sleep as he was pretty much tired after his training with his teammates also he wanted to make sure that would wake up early and at the top condition tomorrow. Unknown to him, Setsuna and Kushina was having a chat in the living room about the team 7.

"They already guessed the objective for your test tomorrow," said Kushina as she sipped her tea.

"I know that. I heard them discussing about the possibility of my test at the courtyard," replied Setsuna with a chuckle. "They are a great team, mother. I can tell it."

"How about the test then?" asked the red haired woman curiously.

"I think I'll pass them, but not before I'm having my fun," replied the adopted Namikaze with a giggle.

Kushina shook her head and sighed. "You really should stop hanging around Anko too much. It's not good for your health."

Setsuna only laughed at that before she and her mother chatted about random things.

* * *

The next day...

The three Genins of team 7 arrived at training ground 15 at the same time, fifteen minutes before the appointed time. They discussed and reviewed their plans and checked their gears and tools, making sure that they forget nothing. After they finished their preparations, they waited for their sensei for a while before she arrived in a swirl of leaf.

"Hello, team! It seems you all ready for the test," said Setsuna with a grin.

"Of course we are. We all ready for any kind of test you'll going to throw at us!" stated Naruto with confidence in his voice.

"Confident, aren't you?" the sword-wielding Jounin smirked. She then eyed Sakura and Satsuki who also showed signs of unwavering determination on their face. _'This is going to be fun,'_ Setsuna thought to herself. "Alright you guys, the objective of this test to disable me in three hours. If you're not able to, then you all failed. Got it?"

The three Genins nodded and their expression didn't changed at all. That smug smirk on their face told what they had in their mind to Setsuna.

_'You're underestimating us, badly.'_

The Jounin also had the tendency to smirk back at them.

_'Let's see what you all got for me.'_

Silence was enveloping the training ground as the three Genins and one Jounin glared at each other. Naruto leaned his body forward a bit as crossed his hands in front of his waist, reaching for the hilt of his twin kodachis; Sakura was reaching to her kunai holster as she kept her eyes on her instructor; Satsuki fingered one of her Fuuma Shuriken on the back of her waist; while Setsuna kept her predatory grin on her face.

"The Final Genin test of team 7...commence!!"

* * *

**A/N: ********Re-edited like those chapters before...**


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 4

"The Final Genin test of team 7...commence!!"

Naruto suddenly bolted forward to Setsuna with his kodachis ready to strike and Sakura was providing support with volley of shurikens. The Jounin took her nodachi and blocked the steel stars with an ease along with vicious blows from Naruto's twin swords. His attacks were fast, vicious, and had a high precision. The black haired Namikaze female noted that this was her brother personal kenjutsu style, Uzu no Mai: Souseiryuu. She recalled what her mother taught her about her clan style, the Uzu no Mai.

Uzu no Mai or the Dance of the Whirlpool was an ancient art hailing from now destroyed Uzu no Kuni. The base of this technique was precision, speed, and power and by focusing on any kind of aspect at any level or combining them with another aspect would create many variations of the technique, namely taijutsu and kenjutsu. As the opposite of Naruto's favored taijutsu style—Hiryuu which was focusing on power and speed, Souseiryuu was focusing on precision and speed. Each strike of each blades was fast, accurate, and effective, not wasting any kind of movement.

Setsuna was snapped out from her recalling as Satsuki had apparently sneaked right behind her with Fuuma Shuriken folded, ready to strike her. It is true that the Fuuma Shuriken was a thrown weapon, but it was collapsible for transport and it seems that the Uchiha girl used it as a short ranged sword-like weapon.

_'She's using it in a different way...very creative of her.'_

Setsuna jumped over her and before she could react, a kunai was sailing through the air at her in the courtesy of Sakura. She blocked the kunai with her sword and she blocked another vicious blows from Naruto as she landed. She gritted her teeth as she found that his attacks was much more vicious than before. Setsuna saw Naruto smirked and jumped out of the way as Satsuki already threw her unfolded Fuuma Shuriken at the Jounin. Cursing lightly, Setsuna used a kawarimi with a log that being shredded by the large shuriken and hid behind the bush nearby. She smirked when her team lost her track.

"Damn it, we lost her!" Naruto cursed.

"No need to worry about that," said Satsuki with a smirk. She raised her hand a bit and flexed her finger, revealing something that glints and long, on the tips of her finger. Naruto saw this and smirked as she flexed her finger once more, causing the blades of her Fuuma Shuriken detached, rushing to four direction in unbelievable speed thanks to centrifugal force—one of them was heading right into Setsuna's hiding place. Having no time to use Kawarimi, she jumped out from the bush, right into volley of shuriken by Sakura. She blocked the shurikens and prepared herself for another sword strikes by her brother, but she was surprised to see him sheathed his kodachis and had his hand forming hand seals.

"Fuuton: Renkuudan!!"

A compressed spinning air bullet was spat out from Naruto's mouth and flew at Setsuna. Just before she raised her defense, Satsuki also formed several hand seals of her own.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!!"

_'Oh hell no...'_

The fire ball joined together with the air bullet, creating a massive spinning inferno that ran at Setsuna's direction ready to reduce her into smothering corpse, if not because of a right timed Kawarimi. The Jounin managed to get into the safe zone, but Sakura was coming at her. Sheathing her nodachi, Setsuna engaged her in taijutsu battle. The pink haired girl also a practitioner of Uzu no Mai and she was using a taijutsu branch called Hanafubuki, a style that focused on precision, speed, and grace, a style something that suited her well—in many sense. Sakura's attack was well coordinated, accurate, and graceful as far as Setsuna noted. She had to wince each time she had to block her attack, thanks to her unconsciously using a fraction of Tsunadean strength. It was not much, but still hurts anyway. She shuddered at the thought when Sakura could effectively use the legendary strength of the slug princess and combined it with the Hanafubuki.

_'She would be unstoppable at taijutsu...and I do feel sorry for anyone she hits.'_

As in a cue of her thought, Sakura's fist managed to home in on her face. She was actually sent sailing backward for three meters before recovering on her feet.

_'...Oh, the irony.'_

Sakura charged again, this time accompanied by Naruto with his kodachis ready and Satsuki was covering the support with hails of kunai and shuriken. Setsuna dodged the volley and reengaged in taijutsu combat with Sakura as she dodged several slashes from Naruto. She couldn't drew her nodachi to parry the blades and she cursed herself for it. A kunai nicked her shoulder and Naruto managed to land a shallow cut on her vest as she dodged a fist from Sakura. Setsuna backflipped to gain distance from her students. She saw the smug smirk on their faces and let a smirk of her own etched on her face. She maybe hold back a bit, but the black haired Jounin knew that their teamwork was top notch so that they were able to push her this far. She then saw Naruto incoming at her followed by Sakura with Satsuki also joining the fray. Knowing that it would be a problem to take them all at a time, she used a seal-free Shunshin for her escape.

From the bushes where she was hiding, Setsuna smirked as she saw her team completely lost her.

_'Their teamwork and individual skills are amazing. The only thing I should teach them more was their tracking skill because they still need a lot of improvement there.'_

Setsuna took one step backward before she felt that she was stepping into something. In reflex, she jumped back to dodge any kind of traps triggered by her last action. Seeing that nothing coming to her way, Setsuna looked confused. The answer to her confusion came with a shout from a certain Uchiha girl.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!!"

The Jounin cursed as she chartwheeled to dodge the fireball. As she recovered, she had stepped into another trap wire and this time kunais were launched from the shades of tree nearby and she dodged it. Her eyes widened as the tag on the hilt of the thrown weapons went off and exploded, nearly blew her in the process.

_'Sweet Kami-sama...What kind of little monsters are they?!...Oh, right. I forgot the fact that I was responsible for creating two of them...the irony...'_

"So Setsuna-sensei, ready to pass us yet?" said Naruto as he pointed her with one of his swords. The three Genins of team 7 had spotted their soon to be instructor when she reeled herself from the explosion.

"If not yet, then you would find yourself in a world of pain," added Sakura as she set into the stance of Hanafubuki.

"We don't guarantee your safety if we should continue at this rate," finished Satsuki as she took out another Fuuma Shuriken.

Setsuna only smirked as she unsheathed her nodachi. "Oh really? I do recall that I said only if you three had disabled me then you will pass. I'm still standing right now and can still fight you."

"Heh, bring it on!!" retorted Naruto as he ran at her with his kodachis ready.

Setsuna blocked an overhead slash from her brother and shifted her sword a bit to block a low to high sweep from the blade from his another hand. Setsuna also dodged a fist from Sakura and another Fuuma Shuriken sweep from Satsuki. The Jounin then distanced herself and went into a stance that Naruto recognized as one of her sword arts.

"Gatotsu!!"

Setsuna lunged forward with her blade in stabbing motion, ready to skewer the Genins of team 7. Naruto and his teammates managed to dodge the attack and went into a sword art stance as soon as he recovered.

"Chou no Mai!!"

Naruto launched a quick diagonal slash with his right sword, followed by a horizontal slash by his left sword, and followed by another series of blurring speed slashes from his right and left sword before ending it with a cross slash by both of his sword. Setsuna staggered as she blocked the last attack from her brother and have to dodge another Fuuma Shuriken from Satsuki, only to receive a knee strike at her chest from Sakura. She gasped as the air left her and she was sailing for three meters and rolled on the ground before recovering from the attack. She saw the Uchiha girl formed several hand seals for her jutsu.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!!"

Four medium sized fireballs were raining at her and she prepared herself to dodge them when she saw Naruto preparing for a jutsu as well.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!!"

The wind from Naruto's jutsu increased the size of Satsuki's fireball by three or four times. Setsuna managed to dodge them, but her clothes were slightly singed. The black haired woman then prepared another sword art to attack, but she was interrupted by hails of kunai and shuriken by the two kunoichis of team 7 while Naruto was coming at her, ready for another attack at her.

"Kasumi Giri!!"

He crossed his sword in front of him as they were glowing in blue color with wind chakra before slashing them at the same time, releasing shockwave of X shaped chakra at his sister. Setsuna blocked the kunais and shurikens as well as the shockwave and she grunted a bit as she blocked her brother's attack. The attack didn't stop there, Satsuki grabbed a kunai and started to attack the female Jounin. Setsuna blocked the attack with her nodachi and she also had to dodge an attack that could left her without her head in the courtesy of Naruto. She kicked Naruto and pushed Satsuki away so that she can block a fist from Sakura with her forearm before the pink haired girl jumped a low sweep from the Jounin. Naruto then coming at her again with both of his swords in overhead slash, only to had Setsuna blocked the attack before he was pushed away by the Jounin. Sakura came at her with her fist ready to hit, but Setsuna slashed her with her nodachi and the pink haired girl was saved by a precisely timed Kawarimi. Satsuki was hailing her fellow black haired female with kunais and shurikens, since her chakra reserve almost used up and she didn't want to waste it any more. Setsuna managed to block the hail of shuriken and kunai with her nodachi, but she overlooked a kunai with a tag wrapped on the hilt embedded itself to her shadow When Naruto charged at her, the Jounin tried to move, but she found that she couldn't move her body at all.

_'What the...I can't move!'_

Naruto smirked as the tip of his kodachi poised at Setsuna's neck, so did Sakura who had a kunai on her back along with Satsuki who was crouching with one of her knee after her last attack.

"Checkmate," said the three Genin at the same time.

Setsuna allowed herself to relax and smiled. "Wow, you guys are great! I'd never thought that I will face a challenge from Genins no less. Then again, it is you three and I should have expected this. But first..." the black haired woman tried to move, but she was unable to. "How did you freeze me up like this?"

"That's simple," said Sakura as she motioned to Satsuki to walk to the tagged kunai on the ground. "It's all thanks to this kunai over there. The note on its hilt produces a special effect that similar to the Nara's Kage Mane Jutsu, which is to bind someone by their shadow so they can't move. Just push some chakra to activate or to deactivate the effect. The effect of this tag can be also removed by removing the tagged kunai."

"I made that tag with the notes left by dad," added Naruto. "It's not that hard to duplicate, but the most difficult was to modify the characters to contain the right number of chakra when activated, so it won't be too weak because too little chakra requires or make it bust because of too much chakra required."

Satsuki then removed the special kunai, making Setsuna able to move normally. "So did we pass or what, sensei?" she asked as she playing with it.

"Alright, alright," Setsuna chuckled at the response as Naruto and Sakura removed their weapon from her. "You guys pass, with flying colors. You three had a superb level of teamwork and skills, and that's enough reason for me to pass you all. Congratulations, you three now are officially the members of team 7."

The three Genins errupted into loud cheer and Setsuna smiled at them. "You three now are dismissed for the rest of the day. Meet me tomorrow at the entrance of Konoha central park on 8 AM for your first assignment as a team. Don't be late, okay?"

"Yes, Setsuna-sensei!" responded Naruto, Sakura, and Satsuki at the same time.

"Good, now I'm off to Hokage tower to report. See you tomorrow!" With that, Setsuna left the field via Shunshin no Jutsu.

"Now then, what do we do?" asked Satsuki.

"Why don't we have a small celebration at Ichiraku?" suggested Naruto.

"That's a good idea, Naruto-kun. Let's go!" said Sakura as they headed to Ichiraku to celebrate their team's passing.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen was having a good day in his office. No paperwork and the Jounins were still testing the new Genins, probably won't be finished until 11 o'clock or so. Of course he had the tendency to be startled and threw his Icha Icha Paradise Author-signed Gold Edition to the air when someone suddenly entered his office without knocking the door of his office. He then turned around to see a beaten up Setsuna, with a big happy smile on her face, which made her looked like an idiot. Meanwhile, Hiruzen was trying to keep his poker face composure while at the same time he tried to hid his precious Icha Icha Paradise.

"Hokage-sama, Namikaze Setsuna reporting for the final Genin exam of team 7," she said while keeping that big smile of her.

"Oh? They are done already?" inquired the Sandaime.

"Yes, they are. And I can't be any prouder to them," answered Setsuna.

"I take it they passed?"

"Of course! As much as I expected from my brother and his wifes!"

Hiruzen nearly fell from his chair when he heard that remark. He quickly regained his composure and looked at the Jounin. "Please report about your team's final test."

Setsuna told the aged Hokage about the test of her team, from beginning till the end without dropping any single details on it and Hiruzen was deeply pleased with the result. He could sense that the Genins of Team 7 could be the next Legendary Sannin of Konoha. Ah, the wishful thinking of an old man...

"I must say that I am pleased with the result of the test, Setsuna. Although, is it true that you didn't pull my legs?" questioned Hiruzen.

Though she kept her smiling face, her left eyebrow was twitching in annoyance. "I'm not pulling any legs, Hokage-sama. I'm telling you the truth."

"I see, very well then. The team 7 is now official," said Hiruzen as he stamped team 7's paper with the stamp 'Accepted'.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. And by the way..." Setsuna blasted a massive KI at the Sandaime who was looking very, very pale as her face turned to be dark, scarier than any kind of demon from the worst nightmare. "If I caught you reading that piece of trash again, Hokage or not, I will deliver the Heaven's Punishment on you. Got it?"

Hiruzen only nodded dumbly at that. All woman, especially Namikazes, were scary that made Kyuubi look tame when infuriated. Like they said, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Not a while latter, Asuma and Kurenai entered the Hokage's office and surprised to see their fellow Jounin beaten up.

"Setsuna? What the hell happened to you?" asked Asuma.

"Blame my brother and his teammates," answered Setsuna with a shrug.

"Oh? How so? Care to enlighten us?" asked Kurenai curiously. She was wondering how good the members of team 7 so they could made Setsuna, one of Kononha's top Jounin, beaten up like that

Setsuna then proceeded to tell her fellow Jounins about team 7's test in the same fashion she told the Sandaime. Needless to say that her peers were gobsmacked by her explanation.

"Damn, those three were good even though you were holding back," the chain smoking Jounin commented.

"You must be proud of them, Setsuna," added Kurenai.

"Sure I am!" the blue eyed Jounin answered proudly. "Anyway, how's your team?" she asked to both Asuma and Kurenai.

"My team passed," answered Asuma. "My test's objective was to make them took a pack of cigarette in my pocket. At first Ino tried to attack me directly, without even giving a second thought about it. I managed to drive her off and went into hiding. It was several minutes later that Chouji came with his clan Baika no Jutsu and attacked me. However, it was just a distraction so that Shikamaru can use his Kage Mane no Jutsu on me and Ino landed the final hit with her Shintenshin no Jutsu to take the cigarette pack. I think during those minutes of silence that they were able to figure out the true objective of this test."

"My team also passed. The test's objective was similar to yours, make them disable me. At first Kiba rushed at me without any second thought, only to had a genjutsu placed over him. Shino then used his Kikaichu technique to make a distraction while Hinata took Kiba and hide themselves. I believe that they were able to figure the test's true objective around that time. Kiba and Hinata then attacked together with their clan speciality. While I was distracted with them, I didn't realize that Shino had planted several of his bugs on me and I realized it too late as I was going to use a genjutsu for them. In the end they managed to disable me by drying out my chakra reserve," explained Kurenai.

"Wow, this year's batches are really good!" said Setsuna.

"You can say that again," replied Asuma. "Where's Kakashi anyway?"

"Probably still testing his team, or worse he doesn't started it yet," stated Kurenai with a scoff.

Three other people in the room sighed. Why did strong people had their own antics? Jiraiya is a pervert among the perverts, Tsunade is a suck gambler, Orochimaru is a pedophile gay, Itachi had Pocky addiction, Minato and Kushina had an addiction to ramen...and the list goes on.

Meanwhile the three Genins of team 6 were still waiting for their Jounin instructor. One of them was sketching the scenery and another one was keeping on pestering the other one who was seeming ready to blow up any moment since Sasuke was already waiting there for three hours and his patience were wearing thin. It is bad enough to wait a certain perverted, extremely tardy bastard. And to have a fan girl annoying you during those hours were starting to grate on Sasuke's nerve!

_'I'm going to kill that bastard. Jounin or not, he had no right to torment me like this.'_

* * *

The next day....

Team 7 was waiting for Setsuna at the appointed place. They were waiting for their sensei while chatting among themselves. Sakura and Satsuki were told by Naruto about the D-Ranked Missions they will have starting today, so they wasn't so enthusiastic about it. In fact, they are less expecting for that and expecting for some training to fix their weaknesses.

Not a while later, Setsuna appeared in poof of smoke and greeted her team.

"Hello, team. Ready for your first mission?"

"What are we going to do? Painting fences? Weeding a yard? Or do we have to babysit some babies?" asked Naruto sarcastically.

"Or are we going to do some groceries for an elder woman?" added Sakura.

"Or we have to chase a runaway demonic cat from the deepest pit of hell?" finished Satsuki.

Setsuna only give them a blank look, especially to her brother. "You told them, didn't you?"

"I only saving my teammates' hope about the missions. After all you never told me not to tell them," answered Naruto with a shrug.

The black haired Jounin said nothing, but she was obviously annoyed. She missed the fun to see their faces when they received their first mission, but she can always have her fun later on. Just wait until they saw the training regiment she had for them.

"Right, right. So today, we will have some D-Ranked missions before we train. How's that sounds to you?"

The three Genins looked at each other and nodded.

"What's our first mission? Let's get that over with so that we can do some training," replied Naruto.

"Let's head to the Hokage Tower to have our mission already," said Setsuna as they left to the Hokage Tower.

And thus, the Genin days of team 7 began, and so did their tales on the world of shinobi.

* * *

**A/N: Re-edited, but not much.**

**Sky Zephyrus, logging out!**


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 5

"This is Gold. I've got the target on my visual range."

"This is Pink. I'm ready to go anytime."

"This is Onyx. I've reached the designated area and ready to move."

"This is Leader. How far the target from your position?"

"Approximately five meters. What's your order?"

"We wait for another five minutes before we strike."

They all waited for five minutes before they decided to move out.

"Alright, move out!"

As in cue, three shadows came out from the trees and heading to their target. The target noticed the incoming threat and ran away from the place where it was before.

"It's escaping! Quick, after him!"

The three figures quickly after the target, however it was very agile and cunning, proving itself as a more than challenge to the chasers. After several minutes of running, failing, falling, and scratching, one of the chasers finally had its patient at the limit.

"Argh! That's it! No more Mr. Nice Guy!"

"Hey, Gold! Wait-"

The speech of his partner was cut short with a loud shout, high spike of chakra, and massive poof of smoke. The target turned around and saw legions of one of his chaser. Its instinct said that ran first and ask later despite of its confusion with what the heck is happening. Though the sheer number was giving it a disadvantage, but the target was able to dodge them all—even some were a close call.

"Not even number matters to it...! Pink! Onyx! time to switch plan B!"

"Do we even have a plan B from the beginning?"

"...On the spot improvisation is important at a time like this. Onyx! Go distract it! Me and Pink will catch it at your signal."

"Why me?!"

"Because you had questioned my idea earlier."

"…I hate you, Gold."

"Less talking, kids! We're going to really lose it now!"

While her cohorts were splitting their way, one of the pursuers was chasing the target as she also tried to lure it to the so called capture zone. However, it wasn't as easy as it sounds. The target was very clever as it even dodged the kunais and shurikens launched at it—though the assaulter not meant to hit it anyway. Several tries later, the target entered the capture zone.

"NOW!!"

Two shadows shot out from the bushes, effectively surprising the target. One of them managed to catch the target while it was struggling against its captor.

"Gah! Calm down, you little monster! A little help here, Pink!"

One of the pursuer put her hand at the target and it began to calm down.

"Target acquired, Leader."

"Good, does it have the ribbon on the left ear?"

"It has. Now come on, Leader! Let's report so I don't see this...thing again today!"

A giggle was heard after the remark.

"Okay then, let's submit our report. Lost Pet, Tora; mission accomplished."

* * *

"Oh, my dear Tora! Do you know how much mommy worried with you?"

Team 7 watched as the wife of Fire Daimyo showing her 'affection' to her newly recovered pet, Tora AKA the devil cat from the deepest pit of hell. They had reported to the Hokage about their mission to retrieve the runaway cat. The three Genins watched with each of their impression regarding the cat which was squeezed to death by its owner.

_'No wonder it ran away...poor little thing.'_

No matter how much they had seen it, Sakura and Satsuki couldn't help but to sympathy on the cat.

_'Yes...squeeze it harder...make it suffocated and die...hahahahaha!!'_

**"Yes...squeeze it harder...make it suffocated and die...hahahahaha!!"**

The same thing, however can be said to Naruto and Inner Sakura. They hated that stupid furball and nothing can satisfy them except to see that cat suffered for after everything they had done to them.

The wife of the Fire Daimyo left the mission briefing room after giving the payment to the Hokage and team 7.

One month had passed since Team 7 passed their test. And during that one month, team 7 had taken several missions and also some trainings to fix their flaws and weaknesses. And during those trainings, Setsuna proved herself as a sadistic, torture loving, and slave driver kind of teacher—her charges blamed a certain snake summoning Tokubetsu Jounin for rubbing her tendency to their instructor. Even Naruto, who had the ungodly amount of chakra and stamina, was crawling to his bed at the end of the day. Nevertheless, the trainings had made them stronger and had fixed their flaws.

"Alright now, Team 7. I have another mission for you," Hiruzen pulled another scroll of D-ranked mission when he heard that the door knocked. "Enter."

The door opened and revealing Kakashi and his charges of team 6. The Genins of team 7 visibly flinched at the sight of Sasuke while the black haired only gave them a silent glare. His two teammates weren't any different than he is. Out of the other three Genin teams who passed their test, team 7 still keeping contact with another two teams, which is team 8 and team 10, by hanging out and training together. They didn't bother with team 6 since Sasuke was a you-know-what, Ami was his biggest fan girl who didn't give the damn about anyone else beside herself and her precious Sasuke-kun, and Sai was...well, for the lack of better term, downright weird and creepy.

"Hokage-sama, Team 6 reporting for duty," said Kakashi.

"Hello, Team 6. I was wondering when you are going to appear. After all, it's already near lunch now and only your team who wasn't reporting for duty," replied Hiruzen as he was keeping his calm composure. He was very much ticked off with the tardiness of Hatake Kakashi, no matter how long he had to endure it or the thickness of his patience.

"Ahahaha...about that, I was lost in the road of life and somehow ended in the boulevard of the broken dreams before I arrived in the promised land," the silver haired Jounin said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

Utter silence enveloped the whole room for a good three minutes after the Copy Cat ninja said his excuse.

"...That was the lamest and the most nonsense kind of excuse I've ever heard..." said Naruto, breaking the silence with a sweat drop.

"If there is 'Award of the Lamest Excuse Among Tardy People in the World', I think Kakashi-sensei would be the winner," added Sakura with a face fault.

"And I bet two hundred Ryos that your excuse was different when you meet your team earlier," finished Satsuki with twitching eyebrows.

Kakashi then stared at the Genins of Team 7 before turning to their instructor. "Your Genins are a bunch of mean machines, Setsuna."

The female Jounin only shrugged in response, as she was lost on the word to say anything toward her cyclopean comrade.

A light cough shifted their attention to the aged leader who was also rather annoyed by the reason Kakashi gave to them. He took the mission scroll for D-Ranks.

"Now then team 6, the missions available for you are: weeding the yards for Mr. Akiyama, digging potatoes for Mr. Suzuhara, painting fences for Mr. Matsuda, and—"

"TORA!! COME BACK!!!"

Hiruzen let out a long sigh before he continued, "...catching Tora the cat again for Madam Shijimi."

Hearing this, Naruto motioned to his teammates to come closer and whispered something to their ear. Sakura and Satsuki giggled and nodded after hearing his plan. Setsuna looked at her charges and saw the mischievous glint on their eyes. She couldn't help but wondering what did they have on their minds.

"NO!! That devil cat from hell has escaped!!" Naruto suddenly yelled and pulled his hair in the most dramatical way possible, shocking most of the people

"All of our effort to catch it was going to a waste!!" wailed Sakura as she dropped to her knee.

"Can someone strong catch that abomination? We all already at our limit!" finished Satsuki as she covered her face with her hands and had fake tears running down.

While the other ninja in the room looked at them with confusion clearly stated in their face, Hiruzen, Setsuna, and Kakashi understood what the heck was that about.

_'...Kakashi was right. They are a bunch of mean machines.'_

_'Nice one, kids! Now this is a show to watch. Maybe I should ask Anko-chan to join us.'_

_'...I wish I was their teacher. It would be so much fun to have them around.'_

"Honestly, what a cat can do? It couldn't be bad or you all just a bunch of weaklings," Sasuke sneered at Team 7. "We'll take the mission."

"Show them who's the boss, Sasuke-kun!" cheered Ami.

The others realized what Team 7 had done couldn't help but grinning mentally. They had used the ego of the other Team and it worked like magic. Scary, scary...

Kakashi sighed as he realized that his team had walked right into the trap of Team 7. Besides, they never do the mission to catch Tora before as the mission was taken by someone else each time they requested for a mission also it will be a nice change of pace. Hiruzen was also grinning inside while keeping a poker face outside.

"Do you accept the mission, Kakashi?" asked Hiruzen with hidden amusement in his voice.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Team 6 accepts the mission," answered Kakashi. He then turned to his team and said, "Let's go, team. We have a runaway pet to catch."

"I'll show you what a true ninja can do. Heck, even if this cat is running away again, I'll catch it over and over," said Sasuke smugly, hoping to crush his rival team.

However, most of the people in t he room looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Of course, the looks were grating on Sasuke's nerve.

"Why the hell you all looking at Sasuke-kun like that?!" asked Ami angrily.

"Alright you three, let's go. That cat won't surrender itself," Kakashi interjected before things got out of control.

Team 6 left the room and as soon as they left the earshot range, the people on the mission briefing room laughed hard. Naruto and Setsuna were rolling on the ground, Sakura and Satsuki were holding their sides and had tears on their eyes, even the Sandaime was bashing his fist on the table where he sat.

"Oh, damn...!" said Naruto as he tried to recover from his laugh. "He took it way too serious...that idiot..."

"That's...Sasuke...to you..." replied Satsuki between her laugh.

"Basically, we're free from chasing that cat thanks to him," said Sakura as she wiped the tears on her face. "Either he had a ball of brass iron or he plain stupid because of his high ego."

"So...what will you do, Hokage-sama?" asked Setsuna as she stood up.

"Like Sasuke-san had said himself, his team would be the one who specifically handling this mission every now and then," answered Hiruzen as he recovered. "So, would you like another mission, Team 7?"

"No, we're fine," answered the black haired Jounin. "Besides we're having something better to do."

"And that is?"

"Watching Mr. Holier-Than-Thou catch that cat."

Hiruzen laughed whole heartedly at Team 7's remark.

* * *

Today was Saturday, the day when Team 7, 8, and 10 having their join training together. While waiting for each of their instructors at the Training Ground 15, they shared their story about what's happening around them in one week.

"So Sasuke volunteering himself to catch that cat over and over again? That was so rich!" Kiba said as he heard the story from Naruto.

"That's not all, Kiba. We all also watch him and his team tried to catch that cat. I tell you what, it was the funniest time of that day!" replied Sakura with giggles.

"Yeah, I remember when Tora not only scratched his face, but also between his legs," said Satsuki with an amused smile on her face.

All boys, save for Naruto winced and covered their crotch at instinct.

"Man, that's gotta be hurt," commented Chouji.

"Oooh, I want to see Ami's reaction when that cat scratched her face," said Ino.

"Believe me, Ino. It was priceless. She was crying like a baby! She was complaining that the wounds will permanently scarred her 'beautiful face'," replied Sakura with a snort at the last part.

Not a while later, the Jounin instructor of each team arrived, along with Kakashi who wasn't accompanied by his team.

"Why is Kakashi-sensei here?" asked a curious Naruto.

"I'm here to teach you all some Jutsus I know. Besides, my team was...well deserves break after the mission," answered Kakashi.

"And the reason why are you on time?" asked Sakura.

"It's because I'm the one who dragged him here," answered Setsuna. "Alright you all. Starts with the usual. Around the field 10 times, then give me 50 push-ups and sit-ups, break for 15 minutes and then spar with each other. Naruto against Kiba, Sakura against Ino, Satsuki against Hinata, Shino against Chouji, and Shikamaru against Shino as soon as he finished. You can use the three basic jutsus and family styles, but no other aside of that."

"Troublesome, and I thought I could escape from this just once to watch the cloud," Shikamaru complained with a loud sigh.

"Complain again Shikamaru and I'll have Naruto as your sparring partner and he can go all out on you," the blue eyed female Jounin reprimanded him.

That threat had shut Shikamaru up. If anything that he never wanted to face was Naruto going all out in a taijutsu spar. He would beat the lazy genius into bloody pulp in no time, even though he wouldn't really do it.

"Fine."

The training then began shortly with the Jounin instructors watching for their charges, save for Kakashi who was reading his smut—totally ignoring the glare from Kurenai. After finishing the laps, push-ups, and sit-ups, the Genins took some break before sparring with their partner.

"So Setsuna, how many missions your team already had?" asked Kakashi.

"About 20 and I'm planning to take a C-Ranked mission on the Monday," answered Setsuna.

"Why only that much? It's already one month, you know," the cyclopean Jounin asked again from his book.

"Because I'm focusing to their individual training. Remember that D-Rank missions serve as the fundamental basis of a real ninja mission and also to train the teamwork of a team. I don't really need to tell you again that my team has the best teamwork among the new batches, right? Besides, me and mother already gave them mission simulation training for several times and they did it splendidly. I think it's time for them to had real missions," explained Setsuna again as she watched the spars. "You let your guard down, Ino! Hinata! Be more aggressive! Your opponent won't hesitate to take you down!" she barked to the two girls who made a mistake on their spar.

"Don't you think it's still too early for them?" Kurenai voiced her opinion.

"Believe me Kurenai, a simple C-Rank mission would be a breeze to them," retorted Setsuna as she watched Naruto land a solid uppercut into Kiba's chin before chaining with a straight kick to his chest.

"Well, I'm a second to Setsuna in the motion," replied Asuma as he watched a mean right hook from Sakura hit Ino's face, only to reveal that 'Ino' was a log. The blond haired girl tried to hit Sakura again from behind, only to had Sakura kicked her. "Their individual skill are excellent, so did their teamwork. They wouldn't having any trouble in a simple C-Rank mission."

"Hmm..." Kakashi looked at the spar between Satsuki and Hinata. Satsuki dodged a palm strike from Hinata and she retaliated with a punch only to had the pale eyed girl swatted the fist aside and she landed a hit on her opponent's chest, only to reveal that the black haired girl had substituted herself with a log. Satsuki lashed a kick that Hinata blocked with her forearm. "I never knew Hinata could fight like that. Didn't she was very shy back then?"

"It's all thanks to Setsuna. Hinata was able to gain a bit of confidence—not much, but still good—so that she could fight her opponent properly in a spar," replied Kurenai with a smile on her face. "Kiba was still brash and loud, but not so arrogant. Though he didn't show it, Shino also had being more interactive with his surroundings and less like an ice block."

"Yeah, hanging around Team 7 is a good thing you know," commented Asuma as he watched Shikamaru had substituted Chouji in the spar with Shino. "My team is now more driven in training thanks to them."

"Why thank you, Asuma, Kurenai," replied Setsuna with a big grin on her face. "I know my kids are special."

"Maybe I should brought my team along next time," said Kakashi as he closed his book and sighed. "They really need a motivation, especially Ami. That girl is causing a premature gray hair to me. Sasuke also needed to loose up some screw on him and needed to be much more humble with another people. His cockiness would be his downfall later on. As for Sai...I think he was hiding something."

Setsuna's curiosity perked up at that, so did her another two comrades.

"He was stronger than he looks. He always hold back during the spar I had with him. I also spotted him to talk with an ANBU several times. I believe the ANBU he talked with was with Root judging from the mask."

Asuma and Kurenai's eyes widened in surprise while Setsuna's eyes narrowed.

"Just as I thought," the blue eyed Jounin said under her breath.

"You knew?" asked Kakashi, surprised that the black haired and blue eyed Jouin already had her deduction.

"I had my suspicion since he entered the academy a year ago. Naruto told me that he was almost devoid of emotion, proven by his fake smiles, so I think he somehow related to Root. Remember that Root ANBU was devoid of emotion thanks to that bandage face Danzou and his whatever method used to do it," explained Setsuna as she kept on watching the spar.

"But what does that mummy face wanted with Sasuke?" asked Asuma.

"He wanted to have Sasuke in his Root ANBUs. He would train him, promising the power to kill Itachi while in the end having him on his force. After all, knowing Sasuke's lust for power, he could manipulate him to do his bidding," the blue eyed Jounin answered.

"What are you going to do, Kakashi?" asked Asuma.

"I'm going to observe him for now and confront him sooner or later," the silver haired Jounin answered. "Anything happened later on will be my responsibility."

The three other Jounin only nodded in response. They trusted Kakashi's judgment on this problem.

After a while, the spar was finished. Kakashi taught some of them jutsus he knew to the Genins of Team 7, 8, and 10 according to their respective elemental affinity. He taught Doton: Shinjuu Zanshuu no Jutsu to Kiba and Chouji, Katon: Housenka no Jutsu to Ino, Raiton: Dengeki no Te to Shino and Shikamaru, Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu to Satsuki, Suiton: Teppoudama to Hinata, Suiton: Mizuhappa no Jutsu to Sakura, and Fuuton: Mugen Daitoppa to Naruto.

Kurenai also taught Sakura several new Genjutsu to be added to her arsenal and Asuma taught Naruto the next step of wind elemental chakra manipulation training, which was the waterfall training, but he cannot started it yet since there are no waterfall in the Training Ground 15. Setsuna herself gave the pointers about their new Jutsus. Aside from that, they also did several other physical trainings.

Several hours later in the afternoon, the Jounins decided to end the training for the day.

"Okay you all, that's enough!" Setsuna called to the Genins who were mostly laying on the ground due to fatigue. "You all did a great job and made a great progress today. Rest well for the night and tomorrow. Dismissed!"

As all Jounins left the training ground, the Genins also started to left.

"Man, what a troublesome day," complained Shikamaru.

"At least we get stronger. Heck, I already feel it all around my body," stated Kiba as Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Along with the aches," added Ino with a groan. "A soak in warm water will do wonders."

"A warm water bath, huh? That's a nice idea," said Naruto absentmindedly. He however missed the glint on the other blond's eyes.

"If you'd like to Naruto-kun, We can take a bath together," said Ino as she latched herself to Naruto, who was completely caught off guard by her statement.

But before he replied and Ino added more, a fist bashed the blond girl's head, making her face planted on the ground. Sakura was the one who responsible for that and she looked like she was ready to kill Ino any moment now. Her face reddened in both embarrassment and anger.

"What the heck are you thinking, you perverted pig?! Have you no shame for saying something like that?!"

**"No one can take a bath with Naruto-kun but me!!"**

Hinata was also blushing furiously. In her mind she was trying to picture the statement that Ino had said earlier.

_'B-B-Bathing...t-t-together with...N-N-Naruto-kun...?'_

The mental image however was too much for her shy personality brain so it was overloaded and she did the only thing she can do for now. She fainted.

Satsuki sighed and shook her head. "Geez, she took it really bad."

Shikamaru and Chouji helped Ino to stand up while Kiba took Hinata and gave her a piggyback ride. Ino sent a dark glare to Sakura who glared back at her before leaving the training ground with her team, so did with Team 8. Satsuki turned to Naruto who shook his head to tried to get Ino's suggestion off of his mind.

"You okay, Naruto?" the Uchiha girl asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me some time to get my mind off from Ino's suggestion," answered Naruto.

Sakura then wiped her head to his direction and gave him her best glare. "You pervert!! I don't believe you! You got yourself imagining you...with her...in a bath?!"

"Wha-?! T-That's not true, Sakura-chan! Trust me!"

"Why should I trust a pervert like you?!" yelled Sakura as she was about to leave the training ground, but a hand caught her wrist causing her to stop on her track. She then turned to see Naruto who was giving her a very saddened look.

"Please don't get angry at me, Sakura-chan. I don't care if anyone gets angry at me, but I can't bear the fact if you are angry with me," he said with his eyes downcast.

"Naruto-kun..." Sakura never saw Naruto as sad as this. She felt a ping of guilt when she looked at him like that. Tentatively she walked to him and pulled him into a soft embrace. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I guess I was overreacting. Besides, which boy who didn't get that kind of imagination with Ino?" she then released the hug and looked at a certain part of her body. "She was pretty, prettier than me and also much more...womanly than me."

Sakura hated to admit that compared to her fellow kunoichis on her inner circle, her body was underdeveloped especially at her chest. Even compared to the girls around her age, she couldn't help but feeling jealous to them who had better body than hers.

"Look at me, Sakura-chan," said Naruto as he placed his hands on her shoulder. "We already talked about this several years ago. You are a pretty girl, no scratch that, you are beautiful. There's no denying on that. You are better than the other girls because you saw me as Naruto, not just as the son of the Yondaime like many of them see me. And for that, I'm grateful for the friendship we have together for 6 years."

Sakura's emerald orbs locked into his sapphire. She always found herself mesmerized by his alluring eyes that looked like vast bottomless blue ocean that she would gladly drowned herself into. She also found that his eyes didn't betray his words. No deception or coaxing, only a truth that came from the bottom of his heart. Her expression softened and rested her head into his chest where she hugged him once again.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun," Sakura whispered softly to him.

"You're welcome, Sakura-chan," Naruto replied as he returned the hug.

Satsuki watched her teammates with jealousy clenching on her heart. She also had developed feelings toward Naruto since he was the one who pulled her out from her darkness years ago when Itachi massacred her clan. However, up until now she backed away from the efforts to get his attention as she considered Sakura deserved it more than her or any girl. She would gladly threatened anyone who tried to break Naruto and Sakura up whenever they got together. But can she stop herself from breaking them up?

_'Get a hold of yourself, Satsuki! Shouldn't you be happy if they finally got together now? Sakura deserves him more than anyone else! Friendship over love! Don't you said that to yourself?'_

"Hey, Satsuki!" Naruto called for the black haired girl, breaking her from her stupor. She saw Naruto and Sakura were already at the outside of the training ground. "Are you going to just stand there while me and Sakura-chan are going to the Ichiraku?"

"Come on, Satsuki-chan! We can't leave you behind, can we?" added Sakura.

A smile formed on her face. For now, she would stay in her commitment to choose friendship over love. She would deal with her feeling later on.

"Coming!"

* * *

Monday finally came and Team 7 was already on their way to the Hokage Tower to get their mission for today. As soon as they arrived there, they quickly headed to the mission room where the Hokage and several of his assistants were waiting for the teams who will take the mission for today.

"Hokage-sama, Team 7 reporting for duty," said Setsuna.

"Hello, Team 7. I see you're early today," said the Sandaime.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. We're here to request a C-Rank mission," stated Setsuna firmly to the aged leader, much to Iruka's surprise who was assigned to be the Hokage's assistant as the academy won't be started until the next month.

"Are you serious, Setsuna? Isn't this too early for them?" the Chuunin voiced his opinion. He eyed the Genins who were managed to recover after surprised to hear that they will take a C-Rank mission.

"Look, Iruka," the black haired Jounin said with a sigh. "A simple C-Rank mission will do just fine for my team. Don't you read the report about my Team's final test last month?"

Iruka was a bit reluctant to agree with Setsuna's decision even with the fact Team 7 was the strongest team from this year's graduating team. Although he no longer become Naruto, Sakura, and Satsuki's teacher, he still couldn't help but worried with their safety.

"Don't worry, Iruka-sensei. We'll be fine on this mission. If Setsuna-sensei said we will be fine, then we will," said Naruto, as if he was sensing Iruka's worry.

"Besides, we always look at each other's back," added Sakura.

"So have an ease, sensei," Satsuki finished with a smile.

"See, Iruka? They will be fine and with me leading them, there won't be a problem for this," said Setsuna.

The scarred Chuunin looked at the three Genins and one Jounin in front of him and sighed. If they were already set their mind on this, then who is he to forbid them? He then glanced at the Hokage and found that the aged leader seemed to accept their reasoning.

"Very well, Team 7. You will take a C-Rank mission and I have a perfect mission for you," said the Sandaime. "Please bring the client here."

A Chuunin then left the room and returned a moment later with a man who seemed to be the client. He was a middle aged man with gray hair, wearing towel around his neck, gray sleeveless shirt, and white pants. He also had a sake bottle with him.

"What? I'm here to hire a bunch of super ninjas to protect me, not a bunch of brats!" complained the 'client'.

"You not need to worry, Tazuna-san," said Hiruzen. "These children over here was the most skilled ones among their peers."

"Are you sure about that? I mean, what kind of ninja wearing orange? It makes him look stupid. And is that girl over there had pink hair? Is that even natural? And the other girl looked so frail that she even couldn't lift a feather."

The client however wished that he didn't comment like that as soon as he finished his line because he found himself was subjected to a massive KI from the three Genin he badmouthed before.

"Are you saying that we're not capable of handling a mission like this?" said Naruto darkly.

"You shouldn't underestimating us, sir. You don't know what we can really do," added Sakura as she cracked her knuckles.

"So I suggest you back away and let us handle the mission," finished Setsuna.

"Alright you three, that's enough. You can't kill the client, can you?" said Setsuna, persuading her charges so that they won't go ballistic on the old man. She then turned to the old man who was sweating profusely after being subjugated to the KI. "As for you sir, I didn't recommend to badmouthing my team because they had the skills needed to finish a C-Ranked mission. Or is the mission is actually on the higher rank?"

The client visibly flinched when he heard that, but he quickly recovered himself so they won't noticed it.

"My name is Tazuna, the super bridge builder. I expect you all to escort me to my home at the Wave Country. You better not disappoint me," the man introduced himself as he explained the mision.

"Very well, Tazuna-san. We shall escort you to your home at the Wave Country," replied Setsuna and she then turned to her Genins. "You three, go home and pack up with full gear and other utilities needed. We will meet at the western gate of Konoha at one hour. Dismissed!"

The three Genins nodded and left the room after bowing to the Hokage. For now, they had a mission to be completed. Little they knew that this mission would be a major event to their life.

* * *

**A/N: Re-edited here and there like before. Don't forget to review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 6

Team 7 was already at the western gate where Tazuna were already waiting for them. Thanks to Setsuna, the Genins of Team 7 already knew how to seal their belonging into scrolls so they won't be bothered with backpacks and it would increase their mobility in the case of emergency.

"Alright kids, listen up!" barked Setsuna as they cleared to leave by the Chuunins on the guard post. "This is a C-Rank escort mission, a pretty simple one. This means we have to ensure the safety of the client until he reached his designation, in this case his home back at Wave Country. But don't let your guard down. We may encounter bandits on the way there, so keep your senses sharp with your surroundings," she explained to her team, pausing to let her words sink on them. "Is it clear to you all?"

Naruto, Sakura and Satsuki nodded in response.

"Good, now we will move out in diamond formation, surrounding the client. Naruto, you take the front. Sakura, Satsuki, you two take the flanks. I will take the rear."

The party then moved out in relative ease pace. Setsuna had Naruto created several Kage Bunshins for scouting ahead just in case. After a couple of hours walking in silence, Sakura decided to pipe a question to the bridge builder.

"Tazuna-san, can I ask you a question?"

"Huh? What is it pinky?"

Sakura's left eyebrow twitched in annoyance when she heard what he called her, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Are there any ninjas in your home, the Wave Country?"

"There are no ninjas in Wave, Sakura," Setsuna was the one who answered. "We maybe live in a world of ninjas, but there are also countries or villages that don't have ninjas with them. The existence of ninja force in a country or village equals to a military force. In a small island country like Wave who had little to none interference from major countries, a hidden village aren't really needed."

"Setsuna-sensei, will we encounter a ninja in this mission?" asked Satsuki.

"Don't worry Satsuki, this is just a C-Ranked mission so the chance to encounter a ninja is highly unlikely. The highest threat we will face is mostly some random bandits, like I said earlier before we left," answered the Jounin, flashing a grin on her face while knowing secretly that Tazuna was visibly flinched during her last explanation.

Setsuna wasn't the only one who noticed that, Naruto also noticed the strange behavior of his team's client. He would warily glancing around, as if he was expecting something to come at him. He knew that the old man was hiding something, but what is it? Is it related with this mission somehow?

His wondering however stopped when suddenly a knowledge rushed to his brain. He tensed and stopped walking, startling his companions.

"Naruto-kun? What's wrong?" asked Sakura.

"One of my Kage Bunshin was destroyed," answered the blond uneasily.

"How?"

"It was when it passed through a puddle when something, or rather someone quickly ripped it a part. Although briefly, the clone was able to identify the attacker and I don't like what it had seen," Naruto shot a look to Tazuna who was backed away a bit.

"Who destroyed your clone?" asked Satsuki warily.

"Missing ninjas, from Kiri judging from their forehead protector."

"'Their'? There are more than one of them?!" Sakura was clearly surprised with her teammate's statement.

"Yeah, two missing ninjas. That doesn't good at all."

Setsuna looked at Tazuna who was started to sweating and gulped his own saliva before she turned to her Team. "We will continue on for now and deal with them when they attacked. As for you Tazuna-san, we will talk later after we deal with those guys."

They then proceeded to walk in full alert with the knowledge that they were expecting missing nins to be dealt with and their formation was closer than before since it will give a slight advantage in relying orders so that their enemy won't heard what they planned. After a while, Setsuna tensed as she felt hostile intentions were directed to her team.

"Here they come," murmured Setsuna, loud enough to be heard by the rest of the party and they all tensed up.

Two shadows then shot up from nearby bushes. They were the one who responsible for destroying Naruto's Shadow clone. Like Naruto said earlier, they were missing ninjas from Kiri. They were wearing camouflage cloak and had masks on their face. They also had a clawed gloves that connected by a chain from one person to another one by his clawed glove.

The Genins of Team 7 quickly reacted to protect their client. Naruto drew both of his swords and channeled his wind chakra to them to cut the chain who was about to rip him in shreds. The missing ninjas were caught off guard when their chain was broken and this moment was used by Team 7 to engage them in combat. Sakura and Satsuki threw some kunais and shurikens at them and the missing ninjas were doing their best to block or dodge the attack. The missing ninjas were fed up and quickly attacked them. One was engaging Naruto while another one was engaging both Satsuki and Sakura. Setsuna herself, knowing that she could finish these two easily, was watching how her team handled their aggressor while at the same time was protecting Tazuna. If any of them in a grave danger, she would jump in to help her charges.

Naruto dodged a swipe from the missing ninja's claw, knowing that the claw was most likely poisoned and he wouldn't take the risk. He parried another swipe with the sword in his right hand and had his other sword ready to skewer his opponent, only to had the missing ninja dodged it by pivoting in his left foot. The masked ninja then brought his knee up hoping to hit the blond Genin, but Naruto quickly reacted by jumping backward to gain distance and landed in a crouch as he crossed his swords in front of his chest. With a loud battle cry, Naruto slashed both of his sword in a random, wild, high speed style which managed to force the missing ninja to play defensive. A powerful slash managed to broke his opponent's guard and Naruto quickly used the chance to bring down his opponent. Settling himself into a stance and twirling his sword in the left hand to a reverse grip, the blond Genin then bolted forward and attacked.

"Reppuuzan!!"

Naruto slashed the missing ninja with a full spinning slash at his chest, causing his opponent to fell to the ground with a dull thud, unconscious because of his wound. The blond sighed and sheathed his kodachis.

Meanwhile, Satsuki and Sakura were also fighting against the other missing ninja. They had an easier time because of the fact that they were ganging up on one opponent. The missing ninja swiped his claw at the Uchiha girl and she parried with her kunai. As they were fighting over the dominance—Satsuki was losing this, the missing ninja didn't realize that the pink haired girl had already got herself behind of him and landed a punch to his face. When he staggered by the attack, Satsuki broke-off from him and kicked his chest with Sakura followed up quickly as she never intended to have the man recover with a partial Ala-Tsunade roundhouse kick. The missing ninja sent flying to the air before slammed to a tree violently, slumping on the ground unconscious. The Genin Kunoichi duo then turned to Naruto who was already sheathing his kodachis.

Seeing that everyone was unharmed brought a wave of relieve to the party Setsuna smiled at her charge.

"Great job, kids. These two were known as Kiri no Oni-Kyoudai or the Demon Brothers of Mist and they were listed in the bingo book. You should be proud of yourselves for defeating them," Setsuna congratulated to her team and they were beaming with happiness and she turned to Tazuna who was sweating under her gaze. "Tazuna-san, would you please explain why they attacked us? Or rather, you?"

"W-What are you talking about?" the old man asked back to her nervously.

"I knew they were targeting you because there is no way they would after me or my team. My team were only Genins that recently graduated from the academy although the two of them are the heir and heiress of a clan and there's no way they knew about it unless they were already going out of the village for several times, this is their first time to leave the village. If they were targeting me, they would send a higher level ninja instead of a Chuunin level ones because I can kill them in one swipe. So I'm going to ask you once again, why did they after you?" the black haired female Jounin asked to her client.

Seeing that he could no longer hide the secret, he decided to tell them his story.

"Do you ever heard the name of Gato?"

"Gato as in the name of leader of the world's largest shipping company leader?" inquired Satsuki as she was familiar with the name.

"Yes, it is him. While in public he maintained the image of a businessman, he actually was a tyrant crime lord. He would sell drugs, slaves, or another underground kind of things to the others. Years ago he set his sight in my country and since then, Wave was suffering from all of his monopolization. He would sale things in inexcusably high price, demanding insanely high taxes, loaning money with another sky high interest. If someone didn't comply to his demand or failed to pay the loaned money along with the interest, he would had his so called bodyguards to beat that person up or even killed him and took that person's wife or daughter or if that person was a woman away for God-knows-what."

As Tazuna paused for a breath, various emotion spread among the Genins of Team 7 varying from sympathy toward the people of Wave, anger and disgust toward the tyrant businessman.

"I tried to stood up against him by building a bridge that could connect us to the mainland, but he wouldn't let me to do it. He would sabotage my work, scare my men off so that they wouldn't help me, or trying to get me killed. I would pay for a higher rank of mission, but I already used the rest of my money for the supply for the bridge which was much more expensive than I thought. I had to lie about the escort mission because of ut. So please! You all have to help me! Without the bridge completed, we will always under Gato's thumb!"

Setsuna only listened to Tazuna's explanation with neutral expression but deep down she too was furious at Gato. She then looked at her Genins and asked, "So, what do you kids say? Should we continue this or should we head back to Konoha?"

"Are you joking, Setsu-nee? There's no way I would leave those people in wave! 'The Namikaze Law no.3: Never left people who needed help and help with the best you can.' If this means I have to face that bastard Gato and his goons, then bring them in!" replied Naruto seriously.

"If we let him do as he please, there's no telling that he would aim for another village or country once he was done with Wave. He needed to be taken care of immediately," stated Satsuki.

"Besides, we would become a laughing stock in Konoha if we canceled this mission just because our client lying about our mission. So I vote in continuing the mission," added Sakura as she crossed her arm under her chest.

Setsuna then looked at her team with pride swelling inside of her and then smiled at them. She turned to Tazuna and said, "It seems that we will continue on this mission. As for the payment, you can pay the rest once your country back to its shape."

"Thank you, thank you very much! I'm really grateful with your help!" replied Tazuna as he bowed to Team 7.

"No need to thank us, Tazuna-san. We only did the things that any humans with heart would do," said Setsuna with a grin. "Come on now! We have an A-Rank-bordering B-Rank mission on our pocket to be done with, along with a midget to take care of and a country to liberate!"

The Genins only chuckled at their teacher's exclamation and Tazuna had to shed a tear of happiness. Maybe Wave still have it's chance to be free once more and the dream of his son-in-law figure would be came true.

"Now give me a moment to write a letter to Konoha to take these guys away as well as asking for some reiforcements. Better safe than sorry," the Jounin said before she wrote a letter and had a Kage Bunshin to deliver it.

* * *

"Whoah..." was only the word that left from Satsuki and Sakura as they watched what was presented before their eyes.

"That's one a HUGE bridge you have there, Tazuna-ossan," commented Naruto with a low whistle.

"Thanks brat. Aren't I amazing for building something like this?" replied Tazuna with a cocky grin.

The said blond only threw a mock glare at the bridge builder before continuing to admire the bridge. Setsuna shook her head and sighed before she returned to watch for her surroundings for any kind of attack indication by the missing ninjas hired by Gato.

Team 7 and Tazuna were now crossing the small ocean that connected to the Wave Country by a boat owned by Tazuna's contact. They moved silently without using the motor as the boatman didn't want to get caught by Gato and his goons. About an hour and half later, they reached a small makeshift pier where they parted with the boatman and as he disappeared into the mist, the party continued on their journey in full alert because they were knowing that the next ninja who will came at them most likely at Jounin level. After they walked for about half an hour, a bush on their side rustled and Satsuki threw some shurikens that she had palmed since they landed. A squeaking voice was heard when the shurikens hit whatever it was behind the bushes. Sakura then decided to look at the bush and found a scared to death white rabbit. The pink haired girl released the rabbit after calmed it down, Setsuna however noticed the strange thing about the little mammal.

_'How come it had a white fur on a season like this, except—'_

Her thought was cut short when she heard a whistling voice and she quickly barked to her team.

"EVERYONE! DUCK!!"

At instance, the party get down quickly avoiding a zanbatou that sailed in the air and lodged itself on a tree behind them. A man then appeared out of thin air and standing on the flat side of the blade. He was wearing nothing on his chest save for an X-shaped belt. He also had a pair of arm warmer, cargo pants, bandage like mask, and a slashed Kiri forehead protector.

"Heh, no wonder Demon Brothers failed. I never expected that the old man will had you as the guard," said the man bemusedly, mentioning to Setsuna.

"Momochi Zabuza...Isn't this a pleasant surprise? Whoever thought a former member of Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananinshu would ever lower himself to serve a man like Gato?" the black haired female Jounin sneered at the man.

"Speak for yourself. You, Konoha no Shiroi Hana Tsurugi, one of the few best swordswoman in the world, are babysitting a bunch of kids," the now identified Zabuza shot back at her.

"Just for your information no-eyebrows, these kids were the one defeated your chronies, not me," said Setsuna with a smirk

"Is that so?" Zabuza quirked his non-existing eyebrow. "I'm going to see that myself," he then put his hand at half ram seal and muttered under his breath. "Kirigakure no Jutsu..."

The mist then suddenly thickened and the missing ninja was gone under the mist. The team's alert heightened to sky high and the female Jounin barked an order to her Gennin.

"Sakura! Satsuki! Protect Tazuna-san! Naruto! Blow this mist away!"

"I'm on it!" placing his hands into a cross shaped seal, three of the blond's clone then appeared with puff of smokes around the party. They, along with the original, quickly forming the same hand seals for a jutsu. "Fuuton: Mugen Daitoppa!"

A strong and seemingly unending wind was shot from each Naruto's, effectively blowing the mist away. Zabuza who was preparing for his Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu was completely caught off guard when the mist was blown away and struggling to stay at his place. He even lodged his precious Kubikiri Houchou to the ground to support himself.

Setsuna then spotted him and disappeared from her place at instance and appeared in front of Zabuza with her nodachi unsheathed. Zabuza quickly raised his zanbatou to block the attack and pushed the blue eyed Jounin away from him. He then countered by bringing his sword for an overhead slash, but the blow never connected to Setsuna as his opponent shimmered away and appeared behind him with her sword to skewer to his heart. The former member of seven swordsman intercepted by swinging his massive sword in a wide arc. Again, the female sword master shimmered away to dodge his attack. Zabuza growled in annoyance and a second later he had to block a clean sweep from Setsuna. He was quickly pushed to be defensive as he had to block several other blows from her. He jumped away from her as he formed several hand seals for a jutsu and landed at the surface of a nearby lake.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

A water dragon shot out from the lake as it roared and charged at Setsuna. The Jounin didn't move from her place and set into a stance instead. Her sword was turned into cold white color in the blade as she channeled her chakra into it. She ignored the worried shouting from her charges and focused at the incoming attack. A second before the attack hit she swung her sword. At the shock of the spectators, the water dragon froze as the blade made contact with it and with a battle cry, she shattered the frozen water dragon in a swing.

_'What the hell?! She had the Hyouton Kekkei Genkai just like Haku?!'_ Zabuza shouted in his mind.

"What did Setsuna-sensei do?" asked Sakura. She was both curious and in awe for what her sensei had done.

"Setsu-nee used her Kekkei Genkai, the Hyouton," answered Naruto. "I never thought she would going to use it."

"Naruto, what's a Hyouton?" asked Satsuki

"Hyouton is a kind of Kekkei Genkai hailed from the Water Country. It allows you to condensate water in the atmosphere to form ice. Only several people in Konoha know about her Kekkei Genkai as Setsu-nee was saving it as a kind of her trump card," explained the blond.

Meanwhile, a lone figure hidden in the shadows of tree was also surprised to see someone can use the Hyouton.

_'She can use Hyouton too, just like me...'_

"So, Zabuza. Do you like my trick?" asked Setsuna as she brandished her nodachi and set into a stance.

"I never knew you can use Hyouton, but that won't help you at all!" Zabuza roared as he charged at her.

Setsuna smirked as she intercepted Zabuza's sword with her own and they exchanged blows for blows. Zabuza noticed that his sword was getting colder and colder, but he shrugged it off as he continued to attack the black haired Jounin. They then locked into a stalemate and they were battling for dominance. Zabuza looked at Setsuna's grinning face and was getting annoyed with that.

"What's so funny?!"

"You mean you didn't noticed it yet? Don't you feel your sword was getting colder and colder any moment right now?"

Now the former Seven Swordsman felt like he was holding an ice cube of some sort. His eyes widened in surprise further more as he saw the edge of his sword was covered in thin ice layer which was cracking and even crumbling at several part. The missing ninja jumped away and looked at his sword once again disbelief before glaring at the female Jounin.

"You bitch...What did you do to my sword?!"

"Oh, nothing. I just channeled my ice chakra to my sword so that everything it slashed will be frozen. The secondary effect it had on weapon will turn it to be really fragile and on human body it would be freezing their muscle, blood, and organs around the inflicted wound. Nasty, isn't it?" explained the Jounin as she smirked at the dumbfounded Zabuza.

Since the sword clash was out of the question, Zabuza optioned to use ninjutsu against Setsuna. He ran through several hand seals, but the Konoha's sword mistress didn't gave him the chance he needed as she was attacking the former Shinobigatana, whom was trying his best to dodge her attack or parrying with his kunai as he didn't want to damage his precious sword any further. Setsuna managed to slash him across his chest, but 'Zabuza' turned into shards of frozen water. The female Jounin cursed under her breath and turned only to see the real Zabuza on the shore finished the hand seals for his jutsu.

"You're dead, Setsuna!! Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!!"

A massive torrent of water blasted toward Setsuna and swiped her away. Zabuza laughed maniacally while both Sakura and Satsuki cried for the name of their sensei in panic. Weird enough, Naruto was keeping his calm through it.

The missing ninja turned to the three Genins of Team 7 and Tazuna with evil smile on his face—though it was obscured by his bandage-like mask.

"Now that bitch was gone, I can kill you all leisurely."

Sakura and Satsuki got into defensive stance with kunais in their hand. Naruto however didn't draw out his kodachis yet.

"What makes you think that Setsu-nee has gone?" asked the blond boy.

As in his word's cue, Setsuna suddenly appeared behind Zabuza in a sword art stance. The said man turned around, but it was already too late.

"Shirafune: Shishi no Mai!"

In a flash Setsuna appeared before Zabuza with her back facing him. There was silence for about ten seconds before the sword mistress swatted her blade aside and Zabuza got several frozen gashes on his body. He fell to his knee before falling to the ground face first. He struggled and looked at Setsuna.

"H-How...?"

"Kawarimi plus Kage Bunshin. Isn't that simple?" she answered as she readied her nodachi to kill the missing ninja. "This the end of the line for you Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist. If only you weren't here right now, Konoha could use another swordsman in her ninja rank."

Just as soon as Setsuna finished her word, three senbons sailed through the air and embedded themselves into Zabuza's neck making him slumped again. Then, a figure wearing mask with Kiri insignia on the forehead appeared from the shades of the tree.

"I thank you for weakening him so I can kill him without much hassle," said the figure with a surprisingly youth voice.

"Kiri's Hunter-nin?" asked Setsuna.

"Yes, I am. I already targeting for this person for a while," the figure then heaved Zabuza by his/her left shoulder and formed a half ram seal. "Now if you'll excuse me."

The Hunter-nin left the scene with Zabuza's body in a poof of smoke. Setsuna sighed and sheathed her nodachi as her team and Tazuna approached her.

"Setsuna-sensei! Are you alright?" asked Sakura worriedly.

"I'm tired, but fine. How about the others?"

"We're alright, thanks to you sensei," replied Satsuki.

"You looked like you can have a good rest, Setsuna-sensei. Where's your house, Tazuna-san?" Naruto asked to the bridge builder.

"It's not far from here. Come on, we're almost there," answered Tazuna as he lead the team to his house.

* * *

**A/N: Huff, finally chapter 6 is done. This week had been rough. So many homework and my laptop crashed, but the data still salvageable. Thank god for that. Anyway, what do you say about this chapter, the battle and other stuffs? I decided to give Setsuna Hyouton Kekkei Genkai because it's a cool stuff. Please do note that Setsuna was _adopted_ by Kushina back then, so either Naruto or Kushina didn't have the bloodline. R&R, kay?**

**Sky Zephyrus logging out**


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto: A Different Path  
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 7

Team 7 arrived in front of Tazuna's house, a simple two stories tall house in a set of platforms as it was located off the shore.

"Well, here we are. Please make yourselves at home," said the bridge builder. He knocked the door to his house and called out. "Tsunami, I'm home!"

Some moments later, the door opened and revealing a woman with black hair and black eyes in her late twenties. She then hugged Tazuna and said with huge relief in her voice. "Thank god you're alright, Father!"

"I'm fine thanks to these people, Tsunami," Tazuna said as he hugged her and motioned to Team 7.

"Thank you so much for protecting my father," the woman said as she bowed Konoha shinobis.

"No need to thank us, we're just doing our mission," replied Setsuna as she waved her hand lazily.

"My name is Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter," the now identified Tsunami said. "Please come in, you all must be tired from the trip."

An hour later, we found Team 7 was resting at the living room of Tazuna's house. Naruto was sitting in a couch gazing off to the ceiling with both of his hands folded behind his head, Sakura was reading a book about medics, Satsuki was also reading a book but a novel instead, while Setsuna was lying on her back in another couch and stretching her body. Tsunami was cleaning the dishes and Tazuna was sitting on the dining table, drinking a glass of water. As they relaxed themselves,they can't help but felt that they were missing something.

"Hey, did you guys felt that we're missing something important?" asked Sakura as she looked from her medic book.

"Yeah, and it really bothers me. But what was it?" replied Satsuki as she closed her novel.

Naruto was still gazing off when his eyes suddenly widened and snapped off from his stupor. "Did that hunter-nin used senbons back then?"

"Yeah," answered Sakura when something clicked on her mind. "Wait, senbons...?"

Setsuna also broke from her stupor and sat up. "Damn it! Why did I miss it?" the Jounin shouted and everyone's attention turned to her. "A hunter nin was supposed to dispose the body of their target on the spot regardless of any witnesses saw him or her. That hunter didn't dispose Zabuza's body, instead he carried his body and left..."

"So you're saying that hunter-nin is Zabuza's accomplish somehow?" the Uchiha girl inquired as she narrowed her eyes.

"Most likely," answered the Jounin.

"But, isn't that masked ninja killed Zabuza with those needles?" asked Tazuna, as he grew worried.

"Senbon or needle was not a weapon that meant to kill, but rather to paralyze the target. It also used in the world of medic as acupuncture therapy to stimulate the nerves. Even if it seems that the fake hunter-nin killed Zabuza, he merely put him into near death state," answered Sakura, as she recalled the things she had read in her book.

"So we will face Zabuza again, huh?" murmured Naruto.

"Judging from the wound I gave to him and the time he needed to recover from the near death state, it is safe to assume that it will take about one week and half or two before Zabuza and his accomplish is going to after you again, Tazuna-san," explained the Jounin grimly as the room grew silent.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew heavier. Tsunami was gripping the plate she holding as her concern toward her father grew while the bridge builder chugged down another glass of water to calm his wrecked nerves. The three genins of Team 7 looked at one another before turning to their teacher who was also deep in thought. No doubt that she was thinking about how they would deal with the missing ninja and his accomplish. Setsuna let out an audible sigh and then looked at her charges.

"We will go to train tomorrow before we escort Tazuna-san to the bridge. Hopefully our reinforcement will come tomorrow," explained Setsuna. "Have a good rest for the rest of the day because tomorrow we will get up early for the training."

The three Genins nodded and made their way to the room that Tsunami had prepared for them, right when door opened, revealing a boy around nine years old boy who was wearing a white bucket hat with blue stripes, yellow shirt, and green overall.

"Welcome home, Inari," said Tsunami.

"I'm home, mom," replied the boy. He then noticed the guests and asked to his mother. "Who are those people?"

"They are ninjas hired by grandpa to protect him," said the woman gently.

Inari looked at the ninjas before he narrowed his eyes and said, "They are going to die."

He then left to the upstairs, ignoring his mother's shout or the irritated and confused look from the ninjas.

"What's his problem?" asked Naruto, annoyed by the brat's act.

Tazuna sighed in response. "He's always like this, ever since Kaiza's death."

"Kaiza?" inquired Sakura.

"A hero of this country," answered Tazuna as he looked up to the torn picture on the wall. "He was a great man. He first appeared when Inari drowned to save a bullied puppy. He then become a brother figure to him and later on married with Tsunami, becoming a father that my grandson never had," here Tazuna paused for a while. "He loved this country so much that he would do anything to it. When Gato had his hand on this country, Kaiza stood up against him along with several other villagers. That bastard of course didn't like that so he did something before Kaiza and his men had the power to overthrow him. One day, Kaiza didn't return home after he went for fishing and on the next day, he was crucified, badly beaten and almost dead, along with another men who helped him by none other than son of bitch Gato. He mocked Kaiza and told anyone who oppose him will ended up like him. Ever since then, this village fell into Gato's clutch and Inari never smiled again. His believe on heroes had been crushed since then."

As the bridge builder finished his story, Team 7's anger toward the shrewd businessman fueled even more. They swore to themselves that they will liberate this country and return the lost hope.

* * *

The next day, Team 7 started their day early to train in a forest clearing near Tazuna's House before they escorted Tazuna to the bridge if their reinforcement hadn't arrived yet. The training was about refining the Genins' skill along with adding several trick to them. Setsuna taught Naruto a support technique for his kenjutsu technique called Shunpo, saying that he would need it in the future. Sakura was training to increase her chakra capacity and refining her control by sparring with her Jounin Instructor's Kage Bunshin at a nearby lake's surface so that she can use the Tsunadean strength properly. Satsuki was practicing her ninjutsu using the pointers on the scroll given by Setsuna. Three hours later, they finished their training and head back to Tazuna's house. There, they also met their reinforcement which was none other than Team 6.

"Hey there, Kakashi. I take it your team is our reinforcement?" greeted Setsuna.

"Well, the other team was busy when your letter came in, so yes we are," answered the one eyed Jounin.

"Not so high and mighty, aren't you Namikaze? To think that you needed a back up for a C-Ranked mission like this," remarked Sasuke snidely.

"It was Setsuna-sensei's decision to had a reinforcement for this mission and for your information, this mission is a A-Rank bordering B-Rank mission. You really need to pay more attention instead of brooding all the time Sasuke," retorted Naruto with straight face, causing his teammates to giggle.

Sasuke snorted angrily and silently cursing that Namikaze bastard.

"Anyway, what's your plan Setsuna?" asked Kakashi..

"I think it's wise to split the team in two so that we can watch over Tazuna-san and the bridge while the other team trains to take on Zabuza and his accomplish when he returns," answered the raven haired female.

"Sounds a plan to me. So who will watch over Tazuna-san today?"

"I think me and my teammates will do the job. Sasuke and his teammates looked like that they could use some training," said Naruto.

"Alright, I'm counting on you Naruto. Don't disappoint me, okay?" said Setsuna.

"Don't worry, Setsu-nee. You can count on me," replied the blond as he and his teammates left along with Tazuna.

* * *

The things at the bridge were rather uneventful. At first the workers were a bit skeptical at Naruto and his teammates because of their age, but they quickly changed their opinion when Naruto used his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create over than fifty clones to help their job at the bridge. It was during their visit to the town to buy the dinner where they actually saw what Wave Country actually looked like. It was more horrible than they first thought, children were looking for food at the garbage can while men were trying to find jobs or just sitting on the ground while gazing off to the sky. There were also almost had nothing to bought for the dinner because the merchant almost had nothing to sale.

When they were going back to Tazuna's house, Sakura felt someone on her back. She was about to lash out at that person thinking that it was a pervert or a pickpocket. Her expression changed from fury to pity when she saw was a little girl looked at her with a slight fear on her face.

"Hello, little girl. What do you need," said Sakura as she knelt to her level.

"E-Excuse me, O-Onee-chan. D-Do you have some food to s-share ? M-Me and my b-brother h-hadn't eaten anything for three days," the girl pleaded.

Sakura smiled sadly as she took out her bento and gave it to the girl. "There you go. You can have it."

"T-Thank you, Onee-chan!" the girl said with tears flowing from her face. She then quickly turned around and left, but not before waving to Sakura who returned the gesture.

"This is worse than I imagined," said Satsuki.

"None of these people deserve to live like this," added Sakura.

Naruto looked around the town before talking with so much resolve in his voice. "We're going to take Gato down and save this country. I promise on it."

* * *

One week had passed since Team 7 arrived in Wave. They also had trained themselves hard so that they will be able to face against Zabuza and his accomplish. Sasuke and his teammates were also doing some training, although their wasn't as as rigorous as Team 7's. They were very sure that they would be able to take down Gato and what he had for them in store. For now, the ninjas were resting after a day of training and helping things at the bridge . However, the peaceful and relaxing moment will be soon over.

"Why are you trying so hard?" yelled Inari out of blue.

The other residence of the house looked at him bewildered.

"You're just going to die in the end, so just give it up!"

"Inari! Behave yourself!" scolded Tsunami.

Just when the boy going to add more, he felt stinging pain on his left cheek. He then looked up to see Satsuki before him with her hand raised.

"Are you done with your whining?" she asked with her eyes as cold as steel, causing the boy to flinch. "If you are then let me say something to you. You have no rights for what you have up for now."

"W-What?"

"I said you have no rights for you have up for now because you're just wasting it. You have a mother and a grandfather who loved you, a house to stay, a comfortable bed to sleep, foods to eat, but yet you acts like you're the one who suffered the most. It disgusted me so much to see a person who had everything but they act like he didn't had anything at all. I've seen so much another kids in this country who don't have any luxury like you have but they are fighting for their life and to protect anything they have. If anyone deserve those rights, it would be those kids."

Inari seemed that he was fed up with the Uchiha's girl remark. "What do you know about suffering? You guys probably never knew how it feels to lose someone precious to you!"

Satsuki laughed dryly at the young boy's statement. "Oh, so now you're telling me that I never suffered before? That's rich brat, that is so rich."

Both Naruto and Sakura knew where this was going and they went to stop their teammate, only to had her motioning to them to let her continue.

"Tell me, how do you feel when you witnessed your own family massacred before your very eyes, leaving only you, your brother, and your mother? And what's worse, the one who killed them was the person you looked up to, your own elder brother," said Satsuki, who did a great effort not to breakdown at the mention of Itachi and Uchiha Massacre.

Hearing that, the boy and his family to gasp in surprise.

"Do you understand now? You're not the only one who had suffered in a point of your life, everyone had suffered too and some of they even had it worse than you had. But they never give up, they never mop around their sadness, they stood and fight so that they or anyone else will never have to suffer again. If you go around and telling that what we and your grandfather do is useless, then you're mocking us, him, and even mocked Kaiza-san."

At the mention of his father, Inari's eyes widened in surprise and his body shook in rage. "Don't you dare say I mocked my father! I always cherished him and—"

"By doing nothing but crying around and telling people to stop to fight? Your words and what you did do are contradicting each other. If your father saw you right now, he would be ashamed with you because you never succeeded his will to fight against Gato," said the black haired girl.

She then left a stunned Inari to the door and opened it as she spoke to the others without looking at them. "I'm going out for a bit," she then left without waiting for response from her teacher and her teammates.

As the Uchiha girl left, silence enveloped Tazuna's house before Tsunami spoke first. "Is what she says true?"

"It is, Tsunami-san. In fact, my student Sasuke is her twin," answered Kakashi, as he motioned to his student who was brooding after his sister left.

"Actually, saying about that incident around her is a taboo. It must be took a lot of her not to breaking down in front of us," added Setsuna.

"Should I go after her? I'm worried with her," said Sakura.

"Satsuki is a strong girl, Sakura-chan. I'm sure she will be alright," assured Naruto.

"But, still..." the rosette didn't sound that she was convinced.

"If it makes you better, then I'm going to after her. After all, we're teammates and we supposed to look out for each other," added the blond. He then turned to his teacher and asked, "Is it alright with you, Setsu-nee?"

The Jounin nodded in response and Naruto left to after his teammate.

* * *

It took Naruto a while where to find Satsuki was, but he remembered the clearing where he and his team trained for the past week so he went there. When he arrived, he found Satsuki sitting on the ground while she hugged her knee and he could hear that she was crying. Seeing his teammate looked like that reminds him when he and Sakura went to see her one month after the massacre. He walked slowly at Satsuki who was still crying and didn't notice that Naruto was approaching her. It was when she felt someone tapped her shoulders she realized that she was followed by none other than her blond haired. Unable to contain her sadness any longer, she hugged Naruto who was caught of guard by her act as she cried even harder. As his teammate poured all of her sadness and pain, all Naruto could do was returning the hug as he rubbed her back gently.

"It's alright, Satsuki-chan. Just let it out, all of it," said Naruto as he tried to calm her.

Satsuki just cried for next twenty minutes before she finally calmed herself down. She then looked at Naruto with still red and puffy eyes. "Thank you, Naruto. You were always there for me, huh?"

"It's all a friend always for. Besides, we're teammates now, aren't we?" replied Naruto with his trademark grin.

Satsuki smiled at him in response. This was the reason why she liked Naruto more than a friend. He was a kind soul, radiating warmth like the sun and calmness like the moon. If anyone that she should be fall in love with it was the young Namikaze heir.

"Let's go back to Tazuna's house. Everyone was worried with you, especially Sakura-chan," said the blond.

"Actually, I'd rather to stay here and cool off for a moment before heading back. You don't mind, do you?" replied Satsuki.

"Just make sure you'll return soon, okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

As Naruto left, Satsuki leaned her back to a tree and gazed off to the starry night sky. She remembered one night when Itachi took her to camping back then when she was 7 years old. It was fun, they built the tent together, gathering the firewood, gathering the food for dinner, having the dinner, and then stargazing. Itachi told her about the constellations and the legends behind them. Little Satsuki was fascinated by her brother's story so she listened intently to it. Her Ita-nii was so cool and smart, that's why she always looked up to him and one day she will be a great ninja like he was. A lone tear streaked down on her cheek as she reminisced those times she shared with her Ita-nii. She missed those times, yet her heart was hurting every time she remembered those bittersweet moments. The Uchiha girl then fell asleep as more memories of her and her beloved brother flow back to her.

* * *

Morning came and a figure entered the scene. It was a beautiful girl with long black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing pink sleeveless kimono and she had a basket that contained some herbs within. The girl then knelt and pick some herbs with her before put them to the basket she carried. As she picked more herbs, she then noticed another girl was sleeping with her back leaned to a tree. Noticing the hitai-ate on her forehead, the herb picking girl put her basket aside and slowly approached the other girl who was still fast asleep. As she approached her target, the said target stirred a bit causing the first girl to halt her advance before tears started to cascading her cheek and she said something in her sleep.

"Ita-nii...why...?"

Realizing that the other girl was having a bad dream, the first girl then slowly reached to her and shook her body lightly.

"Hey, wake up. You will caught a cold if you sleep here."

Satsuki's eyes opened slowly before yawning and stretching her body a little bit. After rubbing her eyes to shake off any lingering sleepiness, the ebony haired girl looked at the person who just woke her up. It was a girl, a bit older than she was, and had the same color of hair like hers. She hated to admit it, but this girl was prettier than her.

"Oh, sorry to trouble you and thanks for waking me up, miss," said Satsuki.

"It's alright, but I'm curious though. What are you doing here?" asked the girl.

"I was cooling myself down after I had a fight last night and the next thing I knew I fell asleep here," answered the Uchiha girl sheepishly.

"I see. Do you have a fight against your teammates?" inquired the mysterious girl.

"Huh? Why did you know I'm a ninja?" asked Satsuki back warily.

"It's your hitai-ate. If you're wearing that, it means that you're a ninja, right?" answered the girl.

"Uh, yeah. Right, sorry," apologized Satsuki with a blush.

"It's quite alright," replied the other girl with a smile. "So, do you have a fight against your teammates?"

"No, I don't. Having a fight against my teammates was the very last thing I would ever thought. In fact, having a fight against my twin brother is much more possible than my teammates," explained Satsuki, thinking about her and Sasuke's strained relationship.

"I see. So you had a fight against your twin instead?"

"No, I had a fight against my client's family. I'm just fed up with his I'm-the most-suffering-people-in-the-world attitude," replied the younger black haired girl with a huff. "Me and my teammates will save this country while kicking a certain midget named Gato in the place where the sun never shines, even if the odds are against us."

The older girl was giggling in response. "It seems that you have a lot of faith in your teammates."

"I am. Without them, I wouldn't be what I am right now," replied Satsuki with a smile as she thought about her teammates, especially a certain blond haired boy. "They are my precious people."

"I'm sure you can do it. After all you had your precious person with you," the girl said as she stood up and walked away with a smile on her face.

"Thank you, um...Miss..."

"Haku, my name's Haku," the girl said as she turned her face to Satsuki with a mischievous look. "...By the way, I'm a boy."

Satsuki's eyes widened in shock and her mind went blank as she watched the girl/boy left. It was five minutes later that she was out from her stupor with her screech of disbelief echoing loudly in the forest, startling the animals there. Her loud screech made her teammates rushed to her place and found that she was still shocked at the 'revelation'.

"Satsuki-chan, are you okay?" asked Sakura, but her Uchiha teammate didn't response.

"Oi, what made you scream like that Satsuki-chan?" asked Naruto trying to get a response from her.

After a whole minute, she finally back to the earth.

"There's no way someone as pretty as that is a boy!" shouted Satsuki.

* * *

**A/N: Finally! This chapter is done! Sorry for the long wait, but I was very busy coupled with several difficulties...Tests, accident, broken arm, fried laptop, tests again...do I need to say more? Dealing with Inari is also difficult since the main characters were having rather good life, especially Naruto, so that's why I had Satsuki dealing with him. Also, we got a little look on Satsuki's past and her close relationship with Itachi. Expect the update will be a bit slow because of these difficulties. Sorry for Bleach reference here, can't resist it. Once again, I'm so sorry! Please leave a review but no flames please.**

**Sky Zephyrus**


End file.
